Do we need to know how many calories a bottle of wine contains? Spontaneously, I would say no. I already know that there are calories in alcohol, as there are in cakes. You just make your choice. But now the European Parliament has got it into its head that it should be mandatory to print the number of calories on the bottle labels of wine and spirit. The Parliament has demanded that the European Commission present a proposal as soon as possible. Ideally, the Parliament wants this to become law already in 2016
I think maybe the Parliament needs to dampen its hope a little. The French wine producers (and also, I’m sure, the Italian, Spanish, etc.) are totally against the proposal. And we know from experience that the EU Commission has some problems resisting pressure from the wine industry. The wine producers argue that a calorie indication on the label would bring substantial costs that producers cannot possibly cope with. Probably they don’t want consumers to be reminded that wine contains calories either.
Perhaps a calorie indication would entail that all artificial increase in alcoholic strength disappears? Like chaptalisation and enrichment with concentrated grape must? That would be a positive thing indeed.
But poor Sauternes and other sweet wines. They probably contain tons of calories.
Read more: vitisphere.com
