To label or not to label–U.S. wine producers have been debating the issue of displaying nutritional data on bottles for years, but a new announcement by the TTB clarifies that mandatory labeling is coming sooner rather than later, industry experts say.

In the wake of a recent press release from three consumer groups, including the traditionally anti-alcohol nonprofit, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) clarified in a Nov. 17, 2022 letter to the groups that it had already been planning to act on this issue, documenting this in its annual plan (announced in the spring of 2022), that showed it would make new labeling rules.

“The press release from the three groups doesn't really change much of anything at all is what the TTB is saying. They’re saying that they were going to do this anyway. They were going to issue a new rulemaking on this regardless of the nonprofit groups’ input,” said Michael Kaiser, Executive Vice President and Director of Government Affairs for Wine America. "The latest TTB letter essentially tells the groups, 'Thank you, and just wait for that to happen,’” he said.

Internally, the federal government had already recommended that the TTB implement labeling requirements in the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury’s Feb. 9 report on alcoholic beverage market competition, saying, “TTB should revive or initiate rulemaking proposing ingredient labeling and mandatory information on alcohol content, nutritional content, and appropriate serving sizes.” (The report was issued in consultation with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.)

Kaiser says the process of defining the new requirements will not be done hastily. “Usually when there's something of this magnitude, in terms of changes, the rulemaking process will be quite lengthy,” he said.  “We're looking at early next fall where there might actually be some sort of final rules that come out about this.”

Kaiser predicted it could be 2024 before rules are issued, “because of the length of time that it's going to take to get comments submitted and to get a final rule drafted and all of that. So it's going to be a while, but, having said that, the industry needs to figure out where it stands on this. And that's something my organization is having internal discussions on right now. It’s been 15 years [since earlier input was offered in 2003, 2005 and later] and a lot has changed in terms of what the consumer wants, and what's happening in the industry. We're going to have to take all that into consideration.”

A new Wine Market Council consumer study scheduled to be released Dec. 6 should provide more insights on consumer preferences, said Christian Miller, of Full Glass Research, who conducted the study. 

An earlier 2020 Wine Market Council study found little consumer interest in nutritional labeling. “There’s no groundswell of demand for ingredient/nutritional labeling, but a significant minority want to see them,” Miller said. 

Transparency is popular with certain groups–natural wine has staked its appeal on self proclaimed purity and diet conscious consumers find nutritional data appealing. Nutritional info is often available on competing alcoholic beverages, including hard seltzers, which are typically low in calories and carbs. Sober-curious Gen Z-ers as a group are also wondering what is in alcoholic beverages, increasingly opting for low or no-alcohol beverages. 

A 2022 study from Wine Opinions found that “better for you” brands are attracting younger, female drinkers. These brands voluntarily list nutritional ingredients on wines with less sugar and fewer carbs per serving. Many list calories on the front label. 

In his talk at the Wine Industry Finance Conference last month, wine market research authority Danny Braeger said “better for you” is “a key consumer driver.” Nielsen IQ reported a 13% rise in annual sales of “better for you” brands between February 12, 2021 to 2022. 

Leading “better for you” brands include Fitvine, Bota Box Breeze, Cupcake Lighthearted, and Franzia Refresher. 

“FitVine is already the category leader of the “better for you” segment, a current bright spot in an otherwise flat wine category. That segment is up 58% and representing $125 million-plus in sales,” said Christine Moll, chief marketing officer at O’Neill Vintners & Distillers, quoted in a recent press interview (in the North Bay Business Journal), and M. Shanken Communications named it a hot brand in 2021.

In the EU, wine labeling is already well on its way to becoming mandatory. On Dec. 6, 2021, European authorities passed laws requiring “a compulsory nutrition declaration and a compulsory list of ingredients for wine products sold on the EU market beginning on December 8, 2023,” according to a USDA advisory. 

“The EU is at least a year ahead of us in terms of wine labeling,” Kaiser said, but so far there is no move to harmonize nutritional regulations between the U.S. and EU, he added. “If you're an exporter, you're going to have to have different labels for the EU than you will in the U.S.”

Kaiser said the spirits industry has already leapfrogged into the labeling arena. “At the Distilled Spirits Council, the main lobbying and trade association for spirits, all of the board members said that they're going to start voluntarily disclosing all this information by the end of next year.”

In France, one entrepreneurial app publisher, Paris based Adrien Trechot, of Dans Ma Bouteille, is already publishing nutritional data collected from 2,000 organic wine producers who have provided it to him ahead of the EU regulations deadline. 

“The subject of transparency on ingredients and additives here in Europe is very hot,” he said. He and other experts believe transparency will help all producers, including organic or natural winemakers, to substantiate purity claims. In addition to alcohol levels, sugar, and calories, his app also provides sulfite levels. 

The EU is still wrangling with many important details, including reporting and terminology on additives, he said. 

One of the questions Kaiser identified as critical is how the labeling will be displayed on the bottle and if digital QR codes will be required. “We support disclosure but we just want it to be done in a more user friendly way than the food nutrition labels,” he said. The result is expected to be alcohol specific labeling.

WineAmerica plans to survey its members on the labeling issue in 2023, he said. The survey would include producers who are already labeling to get feedback on what they experienced as business impacts.

“The consumer has changed over the years as to what they want. I think that more consumers want more information now, and that is different than in the past. And people have really reexamined their relationship with alcohol, particularly in the last few years. The trend we're looking at–of younger people drinking less or not drinking at all–I think all of this is tied together,” he said.