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- What if.... wine labels had to list nutritional info?
I don't know why I started thinking of this today, but I had to write a post about it to and would LOVE some Snooth feedback!
The whole post is here: http://www.kronickwino.com/2009/11/calorie-nutrition-labels-for-wine-future-possibility/
But the question stands as - why don’t wine bottles have caloric / nutritional information?
I know this information exists, so why isn’t it on the label? Will it ever be required? Does anyone even care, or is it a mute point?
Thoughts??
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1135 - Reply by dmcker, Nov 5.
Not sure what you mean by a moot point, but am curious why it might be necessary. Anybody doing much chaptalization might be scared (or that place down in Florida that does 'Pure Turkey' wine and lists food coloring as an ingredient), but otherwise how much of a range would there be from wine bottle to wine bottle, anyway? Of course calorie counts might be pretty offputting to some...;-(
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1135
- Reply by dmcker, Nov 6.
Here's another article on the subject.
http://palatepress.com/2009/09/nutrition-facts%E2%80%A6coming-to-a-wine-bottle-near-you/comment-page-1/#comment-1211
So TTB is going to be dipping their oar in wine descriptions now? I can just see people at the supermarket pushing aside far better-tasting wines for anything with a lower calory count. How long before Gallo and others start pushing 'Lite' versions?
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1738 - Reply by Gregory Dal Piaz, Nov 6.
There has already been a low, or reduced carb wine. Which in and of itself is not a bad thing, no residual sugar and lower alcohol are the ways to go.
Anyway. If there was a nutritional info labeling requirement for wine i would have to ignore it. I pretty much know what the labels would look like for the wines I drink and the wines I drink will not change simply because that info is now in black and white.
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66 - Reply by Jimmy Cocktail, Nov 6.
If I remember right, the reasoning behind not having that information is due to the gov't requiring that alcoholic beverages make no health claims of any sort in their labeling. This goes back to the snake oil salesmen of our western frontier and their shenanigans. I know that it is a stretch to say that listing a bottle of liquid as having 250 calories per serving as a health claim, but this is the way that the bureaucrats have interpreted things over the years.
Personally, I like things just the way they are. I'm not a big fan of everyone else trying to tell me how to live my life and what I should or shouldn't eat or drink. Nutritional labeling just opens that particular door.
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1245 - Reply by mark, Nov 6.
That's interesting, Jimmy re: the health claims or lack thereof.
There's a movement to ensure that we all know what's in the food we're eating and drinking. I wouldn't be opposed to seeing the nutritional content. I remember being curious at some point how many calories I could expect to be drinking per glass. The information was easy to find on the Internet but I had to go there to find it.
I agree that once you do know the basics of what is in wine, seeing the label each time won't really provide much variation. Still, I'm all for disclosure.
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030 - Reply by TL NJ, Nov 6.
Here is a twist on this discussion....
As long as we are talking about nutritional content and "FDA 'requirements'", would they need to put "expiration dates" on the bottle as well? Which brings me to a related question which I have no idea what the answer would be - does the nutritional content change in any way over the years as the wine ages?
Someone asked a few weeks back if I would drink wine if there were no alcohol in it. I said then I would because it was the taste I liked. Therefore, I would have to say that I would probably then drink wine with the nutritional content on the label (although it would unfortunately take away from some pretty nice looking labels that are out there)
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53 - Reply by h2w4, Nov 7.
I don't know for a fact whether or not the nutritional info would change over time, but I would imagine it would. You can see as a wine ages that the bottle actually loses volume (check a current release wine next to a 20-30 year old wine and the fill heights will be dramatically different) A lot of this will have an impact on the alcohol (alcohol in an older wine should be lower than what it was when first released as it slowly evaporates overtime through the closure (probably less of an issue with a screwcap)) thereby changing the calorie content of each bottle or glass.
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- Reply by Jimmy Cocktail, Nov 7.
Here's the link from the ATF's Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to their brochure identifying what is to be placed on a wine label. The TTB is the organization responsible for approving each wine label in the US.
http://www.ttb.gov/pdf/brochures/p51901.pdf
Also, upon digging around the TTB site, I found two documents, 1) outlining the TTB's current position on "Serving Facts" information and 2) their current proposed label requirements.
1) http://www.ttb.gov/press/fy04press/081004servefacts.pdf
2) http://www.ttb.gov/press/fy05press/101804servefactswhitepaper.pdf
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1135
- Reply by dmcker, Nov 7.
Thanks for digging those up, Jimmy.
Ahhh, the lives and minds of permission-focused bureaucrats. Only Helvetica or Arial with no boldface print? Grams of fat and protein? Such useful, attractively presented info.
Another panel/label jammed on the back of the bottle, eh? And I can just imagine a few French winemakers' comments as they're told they have to provide all this 'essential' info, assuming the usual process culminates in a mandatory ruling by the TTB. Perhaps ingredients listing requirements by then, too?
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33 - Reply by TerriF, Nov 7.
Okay...maybe not a popular opinion, but I am health / weight conscious and would like to know the carb and calorie count of what I am consuming. Maybe not necessarily on the label, but perhaps available on the wineries website :)
