Wine Law

wines we must be clear about it; the legal meaning must be observed 7 . Transparency is one of the first qualities on wine promotion. We can split our analysis in two topics. In fact, there are two layers of legislations regulating the promotion of wines – any wine. The first one concerns the generic advertisement legislation, having each country its own rules about propaganda and advertisements. Even in Europe, despite the common market, the rules have been left to the discretion of each Member State, so it is important to be advised by a native advertisement agency. Nevertheless, general premises are spread out all over the countries, and internationals meetings have brought certain harmonisation. The second layer to be referred deals with rules that bring several limitations to promote alcohol. Communications are usually structured following the Berlo’s Model 8 : who (Sender) sent what (Message) through which channel (Channel) to which audience (Receiver). Well, once the sender is a wine industry, a winery, we will face restrictions in the content on the message, on the channel to be used to, and to the audience we wish to communicate. In order to understand the actual framework we are facing with, we should remember that wine is considered an alcoholic beverage, despite the fact of Louis Pasteur recognises that “(…) wine can rightly be considered to be the healthiest, most hygienic of beverages” 9 , and the “French Paradox” about the benefits of moderate wine consumption. The World Health Organization (WHO) consider wine as an alcohol beverage, and as it, the WHO asserts that “ Alcohol consumption is a leading cause of injury, disease and death both for those that consume as well as those impacted by alcohol abuse” 10 . Although the efforts of the wine industries to make a different approach from spirits or beers, as we can note by the OIV researches 11 , countries’ legislations deal with wine promotion as an alcoholic beverage, and usually, no difference is made concerning the alcohol volume in the bottle. In such scenario, we shall promote our wine. It is easy to remark 7 We underline that there are legislations that recognise fruit wines. 8 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sender-Message-Channel-Receiver_Model_of_Communication, accessed on 27 April 2020. 9 Translated from French: “(…) le vin peut être, à bon droit, considéré comme la plus saine, la plus hygiénique des boissons ”, in Pasteur, L. Études SUR LE VIN ses maladies, L’Imprimerie Impériale, Paris, 1866, p. 56. 10 Source : https://www.who.int/health-topics/alcohol#tab=tab_1, accessed on 15 April 2020. 11 Guidance for future research on the effect of wine consumption, available at http://www.oiv.int/public/medias/2140/oiv-secsan-463-2015-en.pdf - Resolution OIV-SECSAN 463-2015, accessed on 15 April 2020.