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Summaries of EU Legislation

Aromatised wine products

SUMMARY OF:

Regulation (EU) No 251/2014 on the definition, description, presentation and labelling of aromatised wine products

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE REGULATION?

  • Regulation (EU) No 251/2014 sets out the production and labelling rules for aromatised wine products.
  • It seeks to ensure high levels of consumer protection, product authenticity, market transparency and fair competition.
  • The regulation applies to all aromatised wine products placed on the market in the European Union (EU), whether produced in EU Member States or non-EU countries, and produced in the EU for export.

KEY POINTS

  • This regulation lays down specific presentation and labelling rules for aromatised wine products, which apply in addition to other rules in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on providing food information to consumers (see summary).
  • Aromatised wine products include three main groups, comprising categories such as vermouth, sangria and glühwein:
    • aromatised wines1
    • aromatised wine-based drinks2 and
    • aromatised wine-product cocktails3.
  • Aromatised wine products must be produced in accordance with the requirements, restrictions and descriptions laid down in Article 3 and Annexes I and II to this regulation.
  • A delegated act adopted by the European Commission, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/670, supplements the regulation, setting out the authorised production processes for obtaining aromatised wine products.
  • A second delegated act, Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/585, supplements Regulation (EU) No 251/2014, setting out specific rules for the indication and designation of ingredients for aromatised wine products.
  • The regulation originally included a legal framework for protecting geographical indications of aromatised wine products. However, amending Regulation (EU) 2021/2117, part of the common agricultural policy reform package for 2023–2027, simplified the system of geographical indications (GIs) for wines and removed the geographical indications scheme for aromatised wine products from the scope of Regulation (EU) No 251/2014 while merging the scheme with that for agricultural products and foodstuffs under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, which has since been repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products.
  • The regulation repealed the previous Regulation (EEC) No 1601/91.

FROM WHEN DOES THE REGULATION APPLY?

It has applied since . However, Article 36(1) and (3) have applied since , to ease the transition from the previous Regulation (EEC) No 1601/91.

BACKGROUND

For further information, see:

KEY TERMS

  1. Aromatised wines. Drinks in which the grapevine products represent at least 75 % of the total volume. They have an alcoholic strength of between 14.5 % and 22 % volume. An example is vermouth.
  2. Aromatised wine-based drinks. Drinks in which the grapevine products represent at least 50 % of the total volume. They have an alcoholic strength of between 4.5 % and 14.5 % volume. Examples include sangria and glühwein.
  3. Aromatised wine-product cocktails. Drinks in which the grapevine products represent at least 50 % of the total volume. They have an alcoholic strength of between 1.2 % and 10 % volume.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Regulation (EU) No 251/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of on the definition, description, presentation, labelling and the protection of geographical indications of aromatised wine products and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 1601/91 (OJ L 84, , pp. 14–34).

Successive amendments to Regulation (EU) No 251/2014 have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

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