Starting with wine made with grapes from the 2024 harvest, still wines sold in the European Union must include ingredient and nutritional information.
By Jeff Siegel
At first glance, the new European Union label requirement for wines imported into its countries seemed intimidating to Ironstone Vineyards’ Joan Kautz. But, in the end, it was just part of doing business.
“There have definitely been challenges,” says Kautz, whose Lodi-area winery exports about 40,000 cases of wine to Europe each year, about one-eighth of its total production. “But if you don’t do it, you lose access to the European market. So you have to figure out a way to get it done.”
Fundamental changes
The regulations, which require producers who sell wine in the EU to list certain ingredient and nutrition information on each bottle, could be the biggest change in wine labeling in more than a century, since the French law for protection of origin of place in May 1919 (which morphed into the current appellation system in 1935).
“What you have to remember is that this is a work in progress,” says attorney Laurel Parker with Abridge, which tracks alcohol regulation from more than 110 countries around the world. “You have to let the EU experiment play out, because there will be changes over time.”
Specifically, starting with wine made with grapes from the 2024 harvest (anywhere in the world), wines sold in the EU must:
• Include ingredients and nutritional values, as well as alcohol volume, potential allergens, bottle size and energy value (measured in kcalories, which is 1,000 times larger than the calorie designation common in the United States);
• Use the language of the country where it is sold — and there are 24 official languages. Hence, a bottle sold in Italy must use Italian for the labeling, while the same bottle sold in Greece must use Greek; and
• Comply with country-only requirements that don’t apply to every EU member. This could include recycling information or additional ingredient or nutritional information.
In addition, the legal definition of serving size, which is 5 ounces in the U.S., per TTB regulations, is 100mL in the EU (about 3.5 ounces). This means, for example, a U.S. label would say 125 calories per serving, while an EU label would give kcal/g per serving or some such. A trained service provider can help with the conversion. To make it even more complicated, sparkling wine label requirements are slightly different from still wine.
“I hear about how complicated this is every week from our members,” says Jamie Ferman, the Wine Institute’s senior director of international public policy. “And sometimes I hear about it more than once every week.”
QR codes offer a solution
Fortunately, the EU will allow almost all of this information to be accessed through QR codes on the label — albeit with certain restrictions. The most important? The information must not contain any marketing, just the factual ingredient and nutritional statements. That means wineries can’t add something like “35 gold medals over the past year” to the information.
And it’s not necessarily difficult to find a QR code provider, say Parker and Ferman. There are a variety of “well-known” service companies, including Scantrust, which handles the technology for the U-label program, established in conjunction with the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins trade group and iProof, a California technology consultancy. Kautz uses Bottlebooks, and there are certainly several more.
A QR code offers several advantages, not the least of which is that it links to a website where the wine’s nutritional and ingredient information can be changed easily with every vintage. In addition, the QR code directs consumers to the website for their language, based on where they scanned the code – something, says Kautz, that makes it much easier for anyone who exports to more than one EU country.
Information still needed
There is one final complication, says Ferman. The EU doesn’t yet have a standard line of text that must appear next to the QR code. Just the word “ingredients” might be OK in some countries, while others might require a combination of “ingredients and nutrition.” Her best advice? Wineries should check with their importer.
Because, complicated or not, it’s the only way to sell wine in Europe.
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Jeff Siegel
Jeff Siegel is an award-winning wine writer, as well as the co-founder and former president of Drink Local Wine, the first locavore wine movement. He has taught wine, beer, spirits, and beverage management at El Centro College and the Cordon Bleu in Dallas. He has written seven books, including “The Wine Curmudgeon’s Guide to Cheap Wine.”
