If you are one of those people who likes to know the ingredients in what you eat or drink, or how many calories you consume, you know that this information is not available with wine. But that will change with the entry into force of Community Regulation 2021/2117, which requires that wines must also provide this information to consumers from 8 December. It is true that there are already companies that are doing this in advance, on their own initiative, but the vast majority have just received an extension of the deadline. Is that the European Commission has come to rectify the existing regulation, specifying that it will come into force on December 8 and apply to all wines produced from this date. This means that the products of the coming harvest are still exempt from this obligation, giving the sector more time to prepare.
A “Portuguese victory”, thanks to the intervention of the Institute of Viticulture and Wine (IVV) and the Permanent Representation of Portugal to the European Union. “It was an amazing achievement. Wines produced before December 8 are safeguarded regardless of the condition they are in, during fermentation, maturation or whatever. Even if they are put on the market for a few years, if they produced before December 8 January 2023 do not have to follow this regulation,” says the chairman of the IVV.
Bernardo Gouvêa emphasizes the importance of giving the operators time to prepare, taking into account the need to list the ingredients of each wine. “It is necessary to have time to carry out analyses, to specify, to have files and all this in a systematic way”, he underlines, adding that “also on the proposal of Portugal” the possibility has been created to expand the list of ingredients appear on the physical label, or on a digital label, with a QR code pointing to a platform with all the detailed information. Nutritional declaration data – the amount of lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, etc. – can be included in the QR code, but the energy value (calories) must be visibly stated on the bottle or label.
Mateus Rosé was the first Portuguese wine to implement the digital label, through which we learn that the ingredients used are grape, grape must, carbon dioxide, preservative (sulphur dioxide, potassium sorbate) and stabilizer (citric acid), that 100 milliliters of wine have 71 kilocalories, 0 grams of lipids , protein or salt, and 15 grams of carbohydrates, in the form of sugar.
Sogrape was part of the first 15 wine companies to join the U-Label project, a platform created by the European federations of wine and spirits, the Vin Committee and spiritsEurope, for the creation of electronic labels, and since April 2022 that the first QR Codes for Mateus were produced. Currently, the brands Casa Ferreirinha, Herdade do Peso, Quinta dos Carvalhais, Silk & Spice, Sandeman, Porto Ferreira and Offley also use electronic labels. Sogrape, the largest national wine company, vinified 29 million liters last year. It sold 167 bottles per minute and generated a total turnover of 347 million euros.
At Bacalhôa, the implementation of the new rules is being prepared “while we work on new labels,” said Eduardo Medeiro, executive vice president of the group, which produces about 17 million bottles a year, half of which are exported. In 2022, it earned 50 million euros. “Consumer information is very important and we need to adapt to that. Transforming our labels into yogurt label replicas mischaracterizes what the mere mortal identifies as a bottle of wine,” he says, defending that the source for the QR code, at a time when everyone has a smartphone, “it’s even an opportunity to better inform consumers about what we’re offering them.”
Adrian Bridge, CEO of The Faldgate Partnership, owner of brands such as Taylor’s, Croft or Fonseca, in a company worth €65 million, argues that the digital label should be the norm, not only for simplicity but also for convenience. to count calories in any language, we get a backbook and not a backlabel,” he jokes.
When asked whether the wine calorie information could lead to a drop in consumption, the executive director of ACIBEV – Associação de Vinhos e Espirituosas de Portugal doubts it. “I don’t think the pattern of consumption will change much because anyone who is concerned about weight or wants to lose weight knows that alcoholic beverages are not recommended. But we believe that, with the QR code and the ability to integrate any information we want, we can include messages that promote responsible and moderate consumption,” says Ana Isabel Alves, emphasizing that the sector has “nothing to hide has”. It will be a challenging adjustment for companies, he admits, especially for the smaller ones, but “the ability to use the electronic label is a facility, not only in terms of cost, but above all because it avoids the need to use labels on different ways to make.” languages, the platform automatically translates to all EU languages”.
For the president of the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto, the consumer always has the right to understand what he is consuming and that also applies to wine. In addition, recalls Gilberto Igrejas, this is “one of the most innovative sectors” in the Portuguese economy, and is also “researched very closely”, so “it will have no difficulty adapting”.
Source: DN
