US Gov't Wants Nutrition Labels On Wine

Filed in archive Wine News on August 6, 2007

It seems as if everyone is obsessed with nutrition these days, and many people are "label readers" - checking each item's wrapper for the number of calories, grams of fat, and so on. U.S. President George W. Bush wants to extend labelling laws even further and slap them on bottles of wine, beer, and other alcoholic beverages. If the proposal goes through, bottles of wine will carry labels similar to those found on other food labels and would list calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates in addition to percentage of alcohol. Not surprisingly, many in the industry are unhappy about this.

From The Sacramento Bee:

Mark Chandler, executive director of the Lodi Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, said nutrition labels would be "unnecessary and redundant" and might force winemakers to "reconfigure" the size of their labels.

"I think the American consumer is already pretty well informed about nutrition and these issues," Chandler said.

The proposal, open for public comment through October, would give the industry three years to phase in the new labels. Treasury officials say this would reduce transition costs...

The latest proposal represents an about-face for the Treasury Department. In 1993, following earlier study, the agency concluded that "there was no significant consumer interest" in having nutrition information on alcohol.