Vita gazette – The alarm on wine, an attack on Made in Italy. The European Commission has reserved it for wine, with the green light for Ireland to use alarmist labels on bottles that warn of the danger to consumer health.

It is a fact that the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for human health have become an international brand. For years it has been claimed that regular consumption of wine by both men and women prevents stress that causes disease and is good for heart disease. Longevity in Italy was also recorded globally as data supporting these views.

While the facts were like this, a decision came from the EU that also concerned Italy, a leading country in the world’s winemaking arena. The EU has quietly approved putting a “harmful” label on bottles of alcohol in Ireland. A step that could be an example for other countries that rightly concern wine producing countries such as Italy, France and Spain. It is a fact that there have been conflicts over Community legislation for years. Was this decision driven by export risks when playing at international tables? An increasingly aggressive move towards Made in Italy, with barrier policies aimed at countering the market and superior quality products? If not, the EU should clearly explain when and how wine is harmful to health, based on scientific data.

The green light from the European Union to alarmist wine labels is a direct attack on Italy which is the world’s leading producer and exporter with over 14 billion in turnover, more than half of which abroad. This is what Coldiretti affirms in reference to the EU authorization granted to Ireland which will be able to adopt a label for wine, beer and spirits with terrorist warnings, which do not take into account quantities, such as “the consumption of alcohol causes liver disease” and “alcohol and fatal cancers are directly connected” despite the contrary opinions of Italy, France and Spain and six other EU states, which consider the measure a barrier to the internal market, and the announcement by the Commission itself of possible joint initiatives on labeling of alcohol.

The Commission’s authorization follows repeated blitzes at Community level to penalize the sector, such as the attempt to exclude it from European funding for promotion in 2023, which was also thwarted thanks to the intervention of Coldiretti. An ideological approach towards a food such as wine which is a full part of the Mediterranean diet and has ten thousand years of history and whose traces in the world have been identified in the Caucasus while in Italy there are evidences in Sicily as early as 4100 B.C.

The golden year

On the other hand, it is not the first time that the Commission has succumbed to the sirens of the extremists of the Northern countries. At the last moment, precisely with regard to wine, the choice to exclude the product from promotional actions was blocked. The problem is always the same: health protection. But this is going to destroy an important part of the EU production system, particularly strong for Italy. In fact, the sector has a turnover of 14 billion, employs over 1.3 million people and deploys a high quality production, 70% of which is destined for Doc, Docg and Igt. And it really seems a joke for Italy that the decision came just a few days before the end of a golden year for exports. The United States, Germany and the United Kingdom (in spite of Brexit) – the study of the agricultural organization points out – are on the podium of the main customers of Italian wine, but sales are also growing strongly in France, the historical competitor. Now we are in danger of being ruined. Which are added to the other critical issues that producers have been denouncing for months. First of all, the climate, which kept the winemakers in suspense until the last minute due to the drought that also burned the vineyards.

And then there are the increasingly expensive production costs, from fertilizers (+170%) to diesel (+129%). The value of the bottle is also affected by glass, which is 50% more expensive, and stoppers, with price increases of 20% for cork ones and up to 40% for other materials, labels and packaging cartons (+35 and +45 percent respectively).

And now ‘It seriously harms health’: an alert that we have been accustomed to reading about tobacco for years in Italy, but which in Ireland could soon be included on the labels of wines, spirits and spirits. The green light came directly from the European Union, with a silent assent to the rule notified in the summer by Dublin and which will allow national authorities to adopt the warnings. A choice which, especially if other countries were to follow Ireland, risks heavily penalizing EU members, including Italy, which makes wine one of its strengths on international markets.

We Italians…

We, and more generally Italy, have always moved in the direction of conscious consumption, wine consumed in moderation has always been part of the country’s eating habits. Now we are worried. Because, in this new year, the number one problem is represented by labels that terrify consumers: a dangerous precedent that risks opening the door to alarmist and unjustified Community legislation, capable of negatively influencing consumer choices. It is completely improper to assimilate the excessive consumption of spirits, typical of the Nordic countries, to the moderate and conscious consumption of quality products with lower alcohol content such as beer and wine which in Italy have become the emblem of a slow lifestyle , attentive to the psycho-physical balance that helps you feel good about yourself, to be opposed to the unregulated intake of alcohol.