RETAIL / WINE STANDARDS: PC Plonk

The Wine Standards Board is now the Wine Standards Branch of the Food Standards Agency. It can now be more proactive in its important analytical work, says Conal Gregory MW

Behind the intriguing label and marketing hype, just how far can we trust a wine to be honest and as described? After all, even a single bottle can command a four-figure sum. In the UK, for almost 33 years, the Wine Standards Board (WSB) has effectively been the policeman of the trade, responsible  for inspecting wine and implementing the often tortuous EU wine regulations.

Co-sponsored and financed by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and The Vintners’ Company – one of the City of London’s oldest livery companies – the WSB passed its responsibilities to the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in July.

This followed a review for the Treasury by Philip Hampton, chairman of Sainsbury’s, aimed at reducing administrative burdens on business. Only last year the WSB had been called one of the nine “most useless quangos” by the Centre for Policy Studies. It claimed there were 529 such non-departmental public bodies.

The WSB’s chief executive, Dr Alan Curran, and the team of inspectors transferred to the FSA. Curran gained his chemistry doctorate at Cambridge in 1972. Prior to joining the WSB, he was at the energy regulator, OFGEM.

There is no reason to suggest their work will alter, but there could be greater involvement with the Wine Management Committee in Brussels, which advises the European Commission on the rules which are applied across the EU.
Consumers and merchants alike would probably welcome the closer involvement that the enforcers can have in shaping the regulations they have to police.

There could also be more hands-on activity with chemical analysis to check that wines are accurately described. Until now such action has usually been reactive – after a competitor tip-off or press comment – rather than proactive.

Oddly, the WSB has never been a prosecuting authority. It can issue orders to stop wine moving but, when it has wanted to go further, it prepares all the groundwork for legal action to be taken, either by a local authority (when a wine has reached the consumer stage) or DEFRA (wholesale).

The WSB, as the effective wine police, derives its teeth from the Common Agricultural Policy (Wine) Regulations. There is a scale of penalties for offences.

“Where the right results can be achieved by a process of explanation and education, that has always seemed to be the better course,” says Christopher Roberts, WSB chairman for the past seven years. Persuasion then, rather than the legal sledgehammer.

Building confidence
The tricky balance is to give consumers confidence that what they read on the label is what they find in the glass, but also that the wine trade is not hassled unnecessarily by bureaucratic interference.

Its work has actually been conducted on a tight budget. For an annual £631,000, it employed nine inspectors which included a London-based technical one, John Boodle, who formerly worked for Christie’s wine department.

The eight regional inspectors made 1,509 visits last year, up from 1,382 in 2004/05. Non-EU wines, mainly from South Africa and the US, caused most infringements, requiring “temporary movement controls” to be issued to stop a wine in its tracks. The most frequent offences were alcohol levels exceeding the permitted maximum and lack of importer details. The WSB operates a warning-light system with more frequent visits to traders with a poor compliance record, but it also takes volume and turnover into account.

To guide the WSB, two of the directors were Masters of Wine (MWs), Philip Goodband and Dr Arabella Woodrow. Their expertise is now lost as the FSA has disbanded the board, which also means the voice of consumer champions, like Elizabeth Hodder, are not heard directly.

As part of its outreach, the WSB has organised annual seminars. Organic wine was the last such theme, held at Denbie’s estate in Surrey. Indeed, the board also has to maintain a register of English and Welsh vineyards – 353, most less than two hectares (4.94 acres) – and check on their production. It supervises the Quality Wine Scheme for wines made in the
UK where there were 74 successful applications including three appeals.

In the past, chemical analysis has shown many problems:

• inadequate level of alcohol, requiring wine to be withdrawn from sale
• low levels of sulphur dioxide
• protein instability
• viable yeasts

A restaurateur drew the wine police’s attention to the deteriorating quality between shipments of a wine sold as Lalande de Pomerol 1998. A panel drawn from MWs and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust tasted samples, differences in labels and capsules were noted and enquiries made of the French authority, the Mission d’Enquêtes Vins et Spiritueux. They confirmed later shipments were substandard but it was difficult to trace records as the French supplier’s business failed.

Current concerns
Curran feels consumers can be confused by labels with allergen information, such as “contains sulphites”, in a multiplicity of languages, even up to 10.

Colour descriptors continue to worry inspectors, particularly regarding rosé wines. “White Zinfandel” has been used for some time and is a term allowed by US authorities. Yet, where no specific grape variety exists, such terms “have the potential to confuse and are potentially in conflict with the European philosophy of wine labelling”, according to Curran. The bottles are often dark or opaque, making the true colour impossible to see.

Blending may become more of a problem. Currently it is illegal to blend an EU wine with a non-EU. Blending of third-country wines has to take place outside the EU. One originating from Australia and New Zealand, blended and bottled in Australia, could be labelled as either with the specific countries named, or using the bland phrase “blend of more than one country”.

Action taken
In-depth audits have been undertaken of both bottling plants and bonded warehouses. Six such warehouses were raided over the last year, one jointly with HM Revenue & Customs. At London City Bond at Tilbury, three WSB inspectors examined documents for two days. Inspectors found many infringements, including incorrectly stated alcohol levels.

There is close liaison with wine bodies in other states and Curran attends an annual European Regulators’ Conference. The last meeting was held in Carcassonne.

Permitted winemaking practices and label conformity are checked by the WSB with their foreign opposite numbers. The French were contacted about the addition of grape must for sweetening a vin de pays after shipment in bulk.

Boodle says, “We receive interesting intelligence about tests carried out on wines which do not conform with EC requirements” and cites countries in the former Soviet Union.

Naphthalene contamination from non-EU states, shipped in flexicontainers, caused the WSB to check with the FSA. The taint of mothballs was regarded as not harmful but several tanker-loads of affected wine were voluntarily destroyed. Australian wine shipped to Germany for bottling turned out to have been massively overdosed with sulphur dioxide and had to
be destroyed.

Curran is ignoring the ingredients labelling used by the Co-operative Group in defiance of the regulations, which the latter feels is helpful to consumers.

Naughty labels
Agreements have been signed which allow Chile to use “traditional terms” like Gran Reserva and for the US to ship wines exceeding 15% alcohol. Late-harvest wines can now be shipped up to 18% alcohol.

At the consumer level, policing is undertaken by local authority trading standards and environmental health officers with technical help from the WSB. A misleading presentation and description could bring a £5,000 fine plus legal costs.

A vin de pays label appeared with all the information in Chinese and the merchant was given the option of either slip-labelling the wine or returning it to the supplier.

Chabri from India was queried as potentially misleading but the importer assured the WSB that it was a recognised term there. Sailing close to the wind are:

• Kiwi Cuvee Sauvignon Blanc which carries a Maori style symbol but states “Produce of France” in minute letters. It is actually Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France. Mike Paul of Western Wines says the wine is made by a New Zealand winemaker and admits to “a handful of complaints”. It sells for £4.99 at Sainsbury’s
• Chat en Oeuf depicts a cat sitting on an egg and is sourced from various growers by Paul Boutinot. Instead of coming from the best-known Rhône AC, it is a Côtes du Ventoux. The WSB says the wine was referred to the French who “spluttered at first, the label prompted much correspondence” but no final objection. It is sold by Morrisons for £4.99
• La Chasse du Pape is used for both a Syrah and Chardonnay/ Viognier but is Vin de Pays d’Oc. The back label says the wine “takes its name from the great reliquaries of the Popes who lived in Avignon during the 14th century”. The WSB says it is “slick marketing but does not break any rules”.
• Goats do Roam, Goats do Roam in Villages, Goat-Roti, Bored Doe are all South African wines from Charles Back.

The future
Now that the WSB has become the Wine Standards Branch of the FSA and relocated to Kingsway in central London, it can tap into the resources of a far larger organisation – not just for key areas such as IT, but for legal advice and more analytical work.

The logical step forward would be to increase its powers to cover all alcoholic drinks, notably Scotch whisky and cider.

© db October 2006