Buyer Beware: The Alcohol Level on Your Wine's Label Might Be Lying to You

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That '12% ABV' might not mean what you think. U.S. rules let wines under 14% alcohol vary by ±1.5%, so a bottle labeled 12% ABV could actually be anywhere from 10.5% to 13.5% ABV — a swing that changes both the buzz and roughly 20 calories per glass.
Many wines miss even that generous target. Annual federal spot-tests show 1 in 5 bottles exceed the legal limit, yet enforcement is thin, giving wineries plenty of room to round up or down for marketing, tax, or cost reasons.
U.S. labels lag the rest of the world. The EU and dozens of other countries allow only ±0.5% wiggle room (and often require fuller ingredient lists), underscoring how U.S. drinkers are forced take every pour on trust.Would you be mad if you found that your favorite chocolate chip cookie had 20 more calories than the package indicated? Or if the light cocktail you ordered was poured strong enough to impair your judgment, coordination, and motor skills?
That might be happening when you enjoy a glass of your favorite wine, even if you've done your research and read the label.
One in three U.S. adults wears a fitness tracking device, according to a study conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Nearly 80% review the Nutrition Facts panel regularly when deciding what food to buy, according to the USDA. More adults are making consumption calls based on what they believe to be a product's nutritional value, calories, and alcohol.
But what if your wine label is lying to you? As it turns out, it may be. And it's perfectly legal for it to do so.
'There is more flexibility with labeling regulations in the U.S., compared to the much more strict European Union,' says Annie Edgerton, a wine appraiser, writer, educator, and consultant who works at Flatiron Wines & Spirits in New York City. 'And because producers long ago bemoaned the necessity and expense of having to print new labels if their ABV [alcohol by volume] differed slightly from one batch to another, the TTB [Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau] allowed for some wiggle room.'
There's a lack of clarity all around.
The TTB, a federal agency within the Department of Treasury, is responsible for regulating alcohol and tobacco products. The agency makes a series of opaque statements on its website regarding the stipulations around ABV levels. Requirements differ considerably, depending on the percentage of alcohol.
Wines between 7–14% ABV aren't required to display a numerical alcohol content level, if it's labeled either 'table wine' or 'light wine,' according to the TTB.
However, for imported and domestic wines labeled with numerical alcohol content levels, those between 7–14% are allowed 1.5% wiggle room, plus or minus the stated amount. So a wine that says it's 12% may actually be 13.5% or 10.5% ABV. And yes, that 1.5% changes the calorie count by around 20 calories per serving, but also potentially its effect on your body.
For wines that contain 14% or more per volume, the wiggle room narrows to just 1%, which still presents a noticeable difference in nutritional value and impact.
Related: What Determines How Much Alcohol Is in Wine?
The reasons that wineries might print inaccurate information on their label are numerous. One may be marketing: More consumers now seek to decrease their alcohol consumption, so a 12.5% ABV wine may sound more compelling than a 14% bottling.
Another may be cost: Wines with more than 16% ABV are taxed at a much higher rate than those lower in alcohol. Wines with 16–21% ABV are taxed at $1.57 per gallon for the first 30,000 gallons. If a wine is at 16% ABV or less, the rate drops to $1.07 per gallon for the first 30,000 gallons.
It could also be tied to logistics: By posting an average alcohol content on wine labels at bulk, there is less need to revise or reprint those labels should future bottlings contain an allowable variation from that percentage.
But whatever the reason, it still presents confusion for customers. It's also unclear how strict the enforcement is on those ABV percentages and allowable variances.
Each year, the TTB conducts an alcohol beverage sampling program, where both random wines and risk-based samples are tested. Typically, this includes testing a few hundred products. Non-compliance rates are high, even with the allowable wiggle room. One recent assessment put violators at 20%, while another had the rate at 26%.
Such leeway in the regulations, Edgerton says, can 'definitely be enough for sensitive drinkers to notice. But the majority of U.S. wineries produce under 1,000 cases a year, so most of them are 'small potatoes' and unlikely to be called to task.'
While some may not willfully take advantage, enforcement is paper-thin, Edgerton says.
Like an artisan cracker seller at a farmers market who claims their product to be gluten free, there's no way for consumers to verify it beyond simple trust.
Winemakers like Brian Pruett of Dry Creek Vineyard in Healdsburg, California, go out of their way to ensure accuracy.
'We have an instrument in our lab that analyzes alcohol and is quite accurate,' says Pruett. 'We analyze each lot individually and then at every step of the blending process. We calibrate this instrument with an outside lab to ensure our numbers are accurate. There are times when we round up or down to the nearest half-percent, but we are trying to have the most accurate analysis on the label so that our consumers know exactly what's in the bottle.'
Related: Why the U.S. Surgeon General Is Calling for Harsher Warnings on Alcohol
As Edgerton says, other countries have less leeway on their printed numbers. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the E.U., India, Israel, Korea, Mexico, New Caledonia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and the U.K. only allow 0.5% room for error, according to an analysis from the American Association of Wine Economists.
Canada, China, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, and Thailand allow for 1% variance, while the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand allow for 1.5% deviation.
'The E.U.'s labels offer a lot more quantifiable detail of alcohol content, and actually how a wine is made, what it's made with and where it comes from,' says Alexandra Thomas, wine director and head sommelier at Chicago's Adalina. 'Labeling in the U.S. can be heavily mysterious with its contents and rely more on marketing. There are no transparency laws in the U.S., so wine brands can put other ingredients to manipulate, like color, dyes, and flavors; [or to] stabilize, like extra sulfites and preservatives; and even grapes they don't own or farm themselves without disclosing that.'
Related: Shop Smarter: Here's How to Read a Wine Label Like a Pro
American wine labels that bear an appellation only need to include 85% of their grapes from that American Viticultural Area (AVA). And despite the vintage or year stated on the label, they may contain up to 5% of grapes from another year. Only 75% of a wine needs to be from a certain grape to be labeled as a single-variety wine.
What does this mean for consumers? Unfortunately, it's buyer beware. To purchase wines from estates you trust is one option, but that's not always realistic if you've dashed out 30 minutes before guests arrive for some 'emergency' supplies. In that case, you can ask for guidance at a bottle shop.
In the end, unless you've got a hydrometer or refractometer to compare what's on the label with what's in your glass, you're going to have to trust the label and be aware that, in this case, numbers may indeed lie.
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