Recipe for Success…
March 5th, 2010 | Posted by Kirk
Ive just been reading a post over on BevLaw.com about ingredient labelling for wine. Given the increase in labelling requirements in the past few years this would seem to be a certainty at some stage in the future. It would be interesting to get some reader feedback/comment on this. Most other food and drink related products are required to have it so why should wine be exempt. This might really place the emphasis back on the winery to produce wine as naturally as possible as a lengthy ingredient list may make the wine look like it was concocted in a laboratory. There will definitely be some wineries who would fight this approach tooth and nail but I think wineries such as ourselves have a lot to gain. Bonny Doon above have perhaps stolen a march on everyone and full credit to them.
How say ye?
Andrew - Castro Martin, Spain
March 5, 2010
Strangely I have just been mentioning wine labelling on our own site, but more related to disclosure of the grape varieties used.
Whilst I have no objection to listing all the contents, without a bit of consumer education, it could be quite worrying to them.
For example, when you see sulphur dioxide and tartaric acid listed, it doesn’t sound very enticing, and does the average man in the street have any idea what 25ppm free SO2 means?
Look at the example of tartrate crystals – in the trade we know that they are natural and harmless, but if there is a possibility that they might appear, then producers often include an explanation on the back label.
Consumer education is the key, after all, we don’t want to scare them off!
Hennie
March 5, 2010
Also reckon it will come. Sooner rather than later as well and one more complication when addressing export of wine and international variation in label requirements.
Education is the key – the how is problematic because it is easy enough on a website or at the cellar door. But what percentage of consumers have interaction with wine producers at those two levels?
Kirk
March 7, 2010
Andrew – agreed, but then again I certainly dont know what half the preservative numbers on food items mean either!
Hennie – yes education of the masses, the big companies like Pernod Ricard will surely come to the fore there