Members of the European Parliament’s agricultural committee have backed a proposal to use the term “reduced alcohol” on labels of wines around 6% abv.
A statement from the European Parliament yesterday (6 November) said the MEPs proposed wine products between 0.5% abv “and at least 30% below the alcoholic strength of their category” should bear the “reduced alcohol” label.
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The minimum alcoholic strength of wine in the EU is around 8.5% abv.
The adjustments to wine labelling are part of the EU’s “wine package” proposals laid out in March.
The European Commission had initially suggested the term “alcohol-light” for products that contain more than 0.5% alcohol and at least 30% less alcohol than the original product before de-alcoholisation.
However, the Council of the EU argued that “alcohol-light” may be unclear or inappropriate in some member states’ languages and instead recommended “low-alcohol” as a more broadly applicable term.
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By GlobalDataIn September, Belgium had “strongly” opposed the Council’s proposal to redefine wine of up to 6% abv as “low alcohol”.
At the time, the Belgian Federal Public Service Health said in a statement: “Such a qualifier misleads consumers, creates a false sense of safety and undermines public health objectives.”
The local government agency added Belgium was the sole EU member state to have voted against the adoption of “low alcohol” on wine labels.
Producers have met MEPs’ latest move with criticism, arguing the “reduced” term will be confusing for consumers.
In a statement, EU wine trade body the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV) said: “We are opposed to the term ‘reduced alcohol’: it is less comprehensible by consumers and, more importantly, it does not work in many languages, notably in Spanish or Italian”.
Speaking to Just Drinks today (7 November), CEEV secretary general Ignacio Sanchez Recarte said the “reduced” term translates poorly. In Italian, he said the term, which translates to ridotto, “is normally [used] for a wine which has some defaults, so it will end up with a self denomination which is extremely long”.
The secretary general said the CEEV was aware that regulators had been facing some pressure from NGOs to adopt the “reduced alcohol” term, arguing that with the “low alcohol” term “the consumer [would] think that they are drinking wine with almost no alcohol, like a beer”.
He added: “For us, the consumer knows it. Normally, a wine is around 12,13, 14% abv and you will get around 5-6% abv. It’s not a low-alcohol beverage, it’s a low-alcohol wine. The consumer will know they will have less than half of the content of alcohol.”
The MEPs’ other proposals included calling for “crisis management measures aiming at removing excess wine from the market”, such as grubbing up, to be supported by EU sectorial funding.
They also said they “want to empower the Commission with tools to take an immediate action” in the case of “unexpected market disturbances”, by adjusting or suspending imports or bringing in “a temporary voluntary production reduction scheme”.
Following the latest MEPs’ vote, the Parliament agricultural committee has began talks with EU countries around “the final shape of legislation”. This will be presented at a plenary session next week.
Subject to this being approved, the legislation will be discussed at a trilogue meeting with the Council in early December.
Sachez Recarte added: “We hope that that during the trialogue, the technical arguments that we have been sharing with the Parliament, Commission and with the Council, will at least eliminate the term ‘reduced’, and we end up with the term ‘low or lower’, or, in worst case scenario, ‘light’ works better than ‘reduced’.”
