A WELCOME STEP TOWARDS TRANSPARENCY IN WINE  

After December 8th, all wine bottles sold in the European Union, irrespective of country of origin, will be required to include ingredients, nutrition information, allergens, and energy information along with the product. 

This has been a long time coming – in fact, wine has been exempted from this law for almost 50 years – and the law has been intensely debated in the wine community. 

The controversy is not so difficult to understand. 

Added transparency means that more people will understand that what they are drinking is not as natural as they perhaps thought. During the 20th century, the wine industry has been heavily industrialized. 

Today, up to 63 different types of additives are permitted in industrial wine. 

For organic wine, 45 are allowed.

For natural wine, only one (sulphite) is tolerated.  

The law can lead to three potential outcomes. 

One is that people now will realize that industrial wine is not the natural product they thought, and drink less. In fact, parallel to the industrialization of the wine industry, fewer people drink wine. 

In the last 80 years, wine consumption in France has declined by 70 percent. 

Most wine drinkers are over 50 years old, and only a few under 40. 

No wonder when the product is so full of additives. 

The other possible outcome is that the new law will lead to an upsurge for organic and natural wines. 

Faced with this information, people will intentionally seek out the more natural option. The third possibility is that nothing changes. 

People continue to drink less, while the industry slowly fades away.

Wine is part of European culture and legacy. 

To continue to drink wine is to connect with history. This law can aid consumers in finding wine that not only tastes better but is also more in balance with the environment. 

A persistent myth also claims that the hangover is less severe when drinking wine without additives. 

Could natural wine be what saves the wine business? 

/Philip Warkander