EU: Commission postpones introduction of labelling laws

The introduction of new rules for wine labelling in the EU has been postponed from January 1 next year until August 1 after complaints by Italy and Spain that they cannot meet the original deadline for "technical" reasons.

The new rules require certain information such as alcoholic strength, lot number or the name of the bottler to be shown. The rules also lay down new regulations for use of traditional expressions to describe wine such as "vintage" and regulate the labelling of third country wines.

Johann Reyniers, Commission wine spokesman, said Brussels had agreed “reluctantly" to the postponement, but insisted there were no political factors behind it.

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