A slate of terms to describe low-alcohol and no-alcohol wines is set to be unveiled by the European Commission in a bid to support the growing market segment, according to a draft regulation seen by Euractiv.

The 2021 CAP introduced “de-alcoholised wine” (up to 0.5% alcohol by volume, ABV) and “partially de-alcoholised wine” (over 0.5% ABV) to the EU market.

But it’s now time to make it easier for consumers to understand exactly what they are buying, according to the draft regulation, which would allow the use of terms already familiar to many drinkers such as “zero alcohol”, “alcohol free”, and “low alcohol”.

“Zero alcohol” would be designated to mean products with ABV not exceeding 0,05 or 0,1% under the Commission draft. The numbers may still be subject to change, as they are given in square brackets in the draft regulation, which currently remains in internal consultation at the Commission. The “alcohol free” and “low alcohol” monikers, meanwhile, would correspond to the definitions already provided in the CAP.

The bloc’s executive plan also calls for changing the current technical rules around de-alcoholisation to make it easier to produce low-alcohol sparkling wines and to extend the categories of wine products, such as by allowing low-alcohol flavoured wines and the use of rosé for Glühwein, or mulled wine, which is a wintertime staple in much of Europe.

This draft regulation would also give the Commission powers to make changes to the electronic consumer nutritional information labelling rules that were adopted in the 2021 CAP reform. The possible changes would take into account the “increasing amount of information that should be made accessible to consumers”.

According to EU sources, the Commission will not be able to present the final text before the beginning of April.

At the sick man bedside

Wine sector is one of the main drivers of the EU surplus in agricultural global trade. But changes in consumer taste, oversupply and climate change are all putting the industry under pressure, making it the ‘sick man’ of Europe’s food and drink industry.

The Commission convened a forum, consisting of officials from EU member countries and Commission experts. Expanding market opportunities by making low-alcohol wines more accessible to consumers was one of the recommendations of the group, endorsed by the industry.

The draft regulation includes nearly all the recommendation of the experts’ group, such as greater flexibility for EU countries in the wine planting rights regime – the EU mechanism to cap the production potential – and measures to promote wine tourism.

[ADM, BTS]

Source: Euractiv.com