Last Friday, a ministerial council supported a new red, white and black pregnancy warning on all alcoholic beverage containers, to be enforced by law in three years’ time — a decision some local wineries have been left in the dark about.
Broken River Vineyards owner Fred O’Keefe said he had not received any information about the compulsory new labels, even though he already had pregnancy warnings on most of his wines.
“It’ll be bloody costly,” he said.
“No-one has given us that information.
“I don’t mind putting labels on the bottles, but if we have to go and re-label — that’s wrong.
“They don't seem to care about the little people.”
While St Anne's Winery's owner Richard McLean supported the message, he said the decision to enforce a new label when all of his wines already had pregnancy warnings, was "overreach".
“It’s another hit to our bottom line, and to be honest, some of us don’t have much of a bottom line left,” he said.
“I make about 50 different wine labels, so that’s 50 I need to change.“I'm annoyed at the overreach, annoyed at the extra cost — but supportive of the message.”
Australian Grape & Wine Industry chief executive Tony Battaglene said he was "deeply disappointed" with the decision to approve a "flawed label" which would cost industry and consumers $400 million.
He said most small wineries with 10 to 20 wine labels would be forced to fork out $100,000 on average for re-labelling, plus the ongoing costs of using the additional printing colours.
“There's only five or six colours you can use, so the colours are restricted for branding too,” he said.
“We support the mandatory labelling, but the problem is they didn't consider the current labels 90 per cent of wineries are using already.”
Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed welcomed the decision by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, citing the social and economic impacts of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder on babies.
“The concerns of the alcohol industry were considered, but the cost of requiring the implementation of this labelling paled compared to the social and economic impact of one in 20 babies suffering from FASD,” she said.
Mr Battaglene said wineries could continue selling wine with no warning labels or the old ones during the three-year transition period before the new labels became mandatory.
