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END POST TYLER COLMAN Nutrition Facts Are a Waste of Label Space 106 V I N EYARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT | day. In a post on The San Francisco Chronicle's website, wine editor Jon Bonné mentioned a conversation with his colleague, Stacy Finz, who wrote a front-page story for the paper about the new wine labeling regulations announced by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). One fact that emerged during Finz's reporting that didn't make it in the story, Bonné wrote, is that Beam Global pushed for the alcohol labeling so that it could market its Skinnygirl line of wines as 100-calorie wines. What could, arguably, be more informative is ingredient labeling. Some wineries have opted to list their ingredients voluntarily, a practice TTB said is acceptable, though the statements may be independently verified. Clearly, voluntary ingredient labeling is not a practical solution to informing the consumer, since only those wineries that don't add anything that could be construed as nefarious in the eyes of the consumer would be likely to add a list of ingredients. Raise your hand if you think a winery that uses the grape concentrate Mega Purple or the stabilizing agent Velcorin would disclose it voluntarily on labels. Wines under 7% alcohol must print nutrition facts. Some labels I have seen for moscato, a wine that can fall into this category, simply state "fermented grape juice" as the ingredient. So this is not exactly forthcoming as a complete list. Consumers have a lot of interest in food ingredients. But wine is confusing, in part because of the mysteries of fermentation. If something is added before fermentation, Sept - Oct 2013 how much of it is left in significant amounts afterward? In some cases, various fining or filtering agents may precipitate out entirely. So there's an issue of what "ingredients" mean to the final wine. Still, the voluntary ingredient lists are likely to provoke discussion about wine and winemaking while the nutritional facts are vapid and superfluous. A 14% alcohol wine has essentially 86% water. Except if there's residual sugar. An unexpected and revealing upshot of this labeling would be that many wines consumers think are bone dry would now have to state the residual sugar level. The most useful information about nutrition would be a measure of sugar, really the only source of calories not from alcohol. This could simultaneously help wines such as riesling, pinot gris, chenin blanc and sparkling wine that have difficulty conveying the style of wine in the bottle to the consumer. The International Riesling Foundation has devised a sweetness scale that members can use on their back labels to inform consumers of the style of the wine. But from a taste perspective, it's not the absolute number of grams of sugar that is important, but rather the relative sugars with acidity. So, as useful as all that may be, it's a little much – for a back label. (Opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Vineyard & Winery Management.) utrition facts abound on American food labels but wine has escaped t h e m – for now. A recent decision by wine's federal regulator has now made nutritional information optional. It's a waste of precious label space. Generally, more information is better. Consumers, especially those with dietary restrictions, should have a right to know what they are putting in their mouths. But the nutrition facts statement doesn't achieve this for wine. That's because wine doesn't have much in the way of nutrition. It has alcohol, which isn't even required on the new optional nutrition facts. (Not that it should be, since the alcohol level is already approximated on the front label.) Wine also has calories, which mostly rise and fall in proportion with the amount of alcohol. It's usually about 120 calories for a 5-ounce serving. Nutritionally, those calories aren't from fat, protein or carbohydrates (unless there's residual sugar); they are from alcohol, which is metabolized by the liver and absorbed into the bloodstream. By contrast, a regular beer has about 75% of its caloric content from carbohydrates, so nutritional facts would be more applicable for suds than sauvignon. And, once again, the alcohol level is already on the front label of every bottle. To get the skinny on nutritional labeling for wine reveals that commercial interest, not consumer education, may have carried the Tyler Colman, author of the wine blog Dr. Vino, teaches wine classes at New York University and the University of Chicago, and wrote the book "Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink." Comments? Please e-mail us at feedback@vwmmedia.com. w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m