Are Plymouth supermarkets selling 'wine-based drinks' as wine?
By Plymouth Herald | Posted: February 27, 2015 Comments (0)
SUPERMARKETS have been caught selling "wine based drinks" in their alcohol aisles - containing just 75 per cent wine.
The Aussie plonk appears to be normal - bottled and labelled like proper wines - but small print on the back reveals they are not what they seem.
Labeling guidelines state that any drink containing less than 75 per cent wine must be described as a "wine based drink".
But there is no requirement to specify what the remaining 25 per cent is, other than sulphur dioxide or any allergens.
Sainsbury's is selling 'Copper Red' and 'Copper White' with 12.5 per cent alcohol at a price of £6.25.
Morrisons is stocking Shy Pig Red and White, at 11 per cent and 10.5 per cent alcohol, amongst some of their most popular buys at £3.29.
Tesco was selling an Australian brand called Umber, both in red and white, but has since been withdrawn it from shelves.
The discovery was made by experts at the website www.wotwine.com who taste and rate wines.
A spokesperson for the company said: "Recently we unearthed an interesting product which caused quite a stir within the tasting team.
"Some of the wines were passable just lacking genuine character and dilute, whilst others were unpleasant, not genuine, contrived and manufactured tasting.
"On later revealing the labels we noticed that in small print on the back label these products were termed 'Wine Based Drinks'.
"The fact that we had been misled into buying them as wine led us to do some more investigation.
"We understand that supermarkets might find it difficult to have another section for these products on their shelves and may wish to merchandise them with wines, but we feel that low strength, low calorie and these drinks might all be best for their customers if merchandised clearly for what they are all together."
The drinks were discovered during a blind taste test, when a tasting manager purchased the drinks from supermarket shelves believing them to be Australian wines.
While tasters though some of the wines were just "lacking genuine character and dilute" others were described as "unpleasant, not genuine, contrived and manufactured".
After a later inspection of the labels testers noticed that in small print on the back of the labels, the products were described as "wine based drinks".
The European Industry body, International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), states that to be called a "wine based drink" the product must contain a minimum of 75 per cent wine.
All of the wines were made by Australian Vintage Ltd and were shipped in bulk to the UK where they were bottled.
The wines were merchandised alongside proper Australian wines on the shelves.
The bottles were packaged exactly like real wine, in bottles with smart labels and placed on shelf space next to their fastest selling wines.
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