Do you really know what’s in the wine you’re guzzling?

Wine labelling is one of the biggest consumer swindles – Rosamund Hall explains how, and why we should be demanding more information...

Whilst almost all food and drink sold in the UK comes with a full list of ingredients and additives, wine has largely been exempt from this (Getty/iStock)

Have you ever stopped to wonder what is actually in the glass of wineyou’re drinking? Do you think it’s just grapes? Think again. There’s often a lot more that gets put in – you just don’t know about it.

However, that’s all changing in the EU this week, and maybe it will put pressure on our government to think about doing the same here. Up until 8 December, the legal requirements for labelling in the EU have been the same as here in the UK, focusing primarily on the producer, region and country of origin, year of production, and alcohol content.

Whilst almost all food and drink sold in the UK comes with a full list of ingredients and additives, wine has been exempt from this apart from requiring a statement to the effect that it “contains sulphites”. Producers selling wine in the EU will now have to list nutritional content, energy value – yes, wine does have calories – and, most importantly, ingredients.