A new law by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) has indicated that vintners will have to use a custom wine labeling system to inform consumers what level of sweetness particular wines may fall under.
According to the law, vineyards now need to mark their wine labels with Extra Dry (XD), Dry (D), Medium (M), Medium-Sweet (MS) and Sweet (S). New bin tags will also list the actual sugar content of the vino as grams per liter. This replaces LCBO’s previous numerical system that marked the level of sweetness that a wine may sit at.
“Consumers today are looking for more information than ever before to help their buying decisions and many are choosing healthier lifestyles by being conscientious about the foods and drinks they consume,” said George Soleas, the senior vice president of LCBO’s logistics/quality assurance division. “The sweetness descriptors and listing of actual sugar content provide LCBO customers with detailed information to help them find a wine they enjoy based on levels of perceived sweetness and discover other wines that taste similar.”
According to the National Post, this new system is developed with “perceived sweetness” in mind i.e., the way it tastes to a customer. This is developed through an algorithm that looks at the ratio between the “residual sugars” and the total acidity of a wine through a chemical analysis in LCBO’s research facility.
If vintners who sell their product in Ontario wish to comply with the LCBO’s new regulations on sweetness and customer clarity, they may want to invest in a custom label printer to create these specialized wine labels.