Having recently cut back on its plans to scrap thousands of items of retained EU legislation, the Government has announced that some of those laws will be eliminated in order to free wine producers and importers from “unnecessary red tape”.
The changes will allow winemakers the freedom to pick from a wider range of vines, including more disease-resistant varieties, and will overturn the restrictions that currently prevent the wine industry from producing new blends. In addition, bottlers will be able to turn imported wine into sparkling wine.
Changes will also include removing expensive and cumbersome packaging requirements, such as the mandatory requirement that certain sparkling wines must have foil caps and mushroom stoppers.
Food and Drink Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, said: “The UK has over 800 thriving vineyards at home and hundreds of millions of pounds worth of wine trade going through UK ports every year. But for too long our producers have been held back by cumbersome inherited EU regulations. We will give them the freedom they need to thrive.”
Allowing businesses bringing bulk wine into Great Britain to blend will benefit importers, bottlers and ultimately consumers, while labelling changes will allow a common back label to be used in both EU and UK markets, Chief Executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, Miles Beale, explained.
It would, he continued, maintain the UK as an attractive market for producers both large and small.
A consultation, available HERE and open for comments until 21 July 2023, invites views on the nature, scope and timings of all the proposed changes from interested parties in England and Wales.
