The EU is introucing component labeling for red wine next year, and the rest of the world may not be far behind.
© Ridge Vineyards|The new active ingredient labeling rules suggest all white wines getting in the EU will need to be compliant.
Lots of Americans think red wines are loaded with added sugar. Hence if wineries are forced by the US federal government to list ingredients, it may be more practical than hesitant members of the red wine industry think.
The mistaken belief about sugar-laden red wines was the most striking finding from a Red wine Market Council survey of 1000 United States white wine drinkers about different aspects of ingredient labeling. The EU will need active ingredient labeling for wine beginning next December, and the United States federal government has actually revealed it is preparing to study the concern and possibly problem comparable guidelines.
Fully 47 percent of the red wine drinkers surveyed stated that white wine is high in sugar, compared to 36 percent for hard seltzer and only 18 percent for beer.
If you want to know why, I welcome you to do an Internet search for “low-sugar white wines”. You will be impressed at how many listings there are. Enough red wine business are running around claiming that other producers’ “standard” white wines are full of sugar to have made a significant impact on public perception.
“This is a substantial wakeup require us,” stated Christian Miller, Wine Market Council director of research.
Certainly, it’s possible that this finding alone may alter industry opposition to ingredient labeling.
“If component labels are needed, the low sugar scores for the majority of industrial white wines are going to be a pleasant surprise,” Miller informed Wine-Searcher after the webinar.
Last month, the US federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) wrote in a letter that it plans to take part in brand-new rulemaking on nutrient content labeling (i.e., calories) and component labeling. The TTB is a slow-moving organization so it’s uncertain that any new guidelines will come out prior to the EU’s. EU-made white wines with active ingredient labeling will start striking store racks in early 2024. Under the upcoming EU rules, calories must be printed on the label, but the ingredients might be noted on a website instead of the bottle itself if the bottle has either a QR code or the site address.
Banishing the boogeyman
Wine Market Council’s study exposed that component labeling might not be the boogeyman after all. WMC developed a theoretical component label and asked customers to react to the ingredients noted.
The only active ingredient about which a bulk of consumers felt negative was sulfur dioxide, which already need to be listed on red wine labels (“consists of sulfites”).
The next greatest unfavorable rating was this: about 30 percent of customers felt unfavorable about tartaric acid and malolactic germs culture, which Miller stated was lower than he expected.
“The white wine industry method overestimates the favorable connotations of the words ‘acid’ or ‘acidity’ in general,” Miller informed Wine-Searcher. “For a lot of people, it’s not a favorable. How many individuals go out and state: ‘I’m trying to find some truly acidic pickles. I want my lemonade high acid.’ And then tartaric– what is ‘tartaric?’ I ensure you if it had been citric acid, it would have been 20 percent favorable and practically everybody else neutral.”
Grape concentrate (“Mega Purple”) was not seen adversely. And just 13 percent of respondents saw “oak tannins” as an unfavorable– a low outcome thinking about that, if they are listed as an ingredient, they’re most likely from oak powder thrown into the tank.
“I believe a lot of things that people expected are not the case,” Miller said.
The red wine industry also might take heed that its most important consumers of the future are the most thinking about ingredient labeling. Miller said that consumers older than 40 hold different requirements relating to labeling transparency for alcohols and food, however customers more youthful than 40 are significantly most likely to wish to know what’s in that bottle.
Additionally, high-end white wine consumers and customers who consider themselves well-informed about red wine are more likely to want ingredient labeling.
“I anticipated more individuals to state, more costly white wines will have less components,” Miller stated. “That did not appear to be the case, and it was not even the case for high-end white wine consumers.”
(What this shows is that Wine-Searcher readers understand the rating.)
Regarding whether a QR code is a sufficient place to list active ingredients, that unsurprisingly varies by age. People over 60 dislike QR codes; individuals under 40 are more amenable to the idea. And they ‘d better be, because Wine Market Council President Dale Stratton said: “We’re taking a look at QR codes as the shipment gadget for this progressing.”
Time to update your phone, red wine fans.
To sign up with the discussion, discuss our social networks channels.