The legislation will not apply to wines already in circulation. Credit: Scott Warman via Unsplash.

The UK government is set to introduce new requirements for selling and labelling wine across the country with effect from 1 January 2024.

The country’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) has updated its guidance on labelling laws for wine imports into England for this date.

It will become mandatory for importers, retailers, and wholesalers to ensure that wine labels show the name and address of a business that is either based in the UK, Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man.

In case the name and address of the food business operator (FBO) is not based in any of these three locations, the label should have the name and address of the importer.

In this case, importers providing their name and address on wine labels will not be required to mention the words ‘importer’ or ‘imported by’, Defra added.

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Wine products coming to England from other parts of the UK, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man are required to follow the same rules as that of wine imported to England from any of the EU or non-EU nations. 

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According to Defra, it is not mandatory for importers, retailers, and wholesalers to relabel wine imported and labelled before 1 January 2024, as the wine is already in the supply chain and being aged.

These updates will not be implemented for wine imported directly into Scotland and Wales.

However, imports to these two locations must be labelled with the importer or bottler’s address or both.

First published in December 2020, wine importing, selling, and labelling laws across the UK state that retailers, importers, and wholesalers need to provide an EU VI-1 pro forma when importing wine from outside the EU directly into Northern Ireland.

All food and drink businesses are required to register as an FBO and then apply to obtain the EU VI-1 certification issued by Defra.

This certificate is not needed for importing wine into Great Britain and from the EU to Northern Ireland.