A simple question you would have thought? We go to the supermarket or preferably our local wine merchant and buy some bottles. We open it up and drink the alcoholic white, pink or red liquid inside and generally enjoy it very much.

We all know wine is made from grapes, but what about elderflower wine? And what about non-alcoholic wine? Are these products really wine?

The simple answer is no.

Predictably, our friends at the European Commission have got together in a very large committee to define “wine” and help us if we weren’t sure. The result was EU Council Regulation 1493/1999 that defines “the common organisation of the market in wine” and has been amended extensively, most recently comprehensively through Council Regulation 479/2008

However, the basic definition of “wine” remains the same:

“Wine shall be the product obtained exclusively from the total or partial alcoholic fermentation of fresh grapes, whether or not crushed, or of grape must.”

Straightforward enough. But let’s look at it in a little more detail.

First, a wine needs to have undergone alcoholic fermentation. And the regulation goes on to require a minimum alcoholic strength of 4.5 to 9% abv depending on origin. There are exceptions to this, but the regulation requires wine to be alcoholic. So that’s low and non-alcohol wine excluded then.

Interestingly, the regulation also requires wine to have a maximum strength, which varies between 15% and 20% abv, depending on origin.

Wine has to be made exclusively from grapes or a grape product. So, elderflower, blackberry and tomato “wines” are not wine either. In the case of tomato wine, I think we should be relieved, as it’s barely a drink!

The other thing the regulation requires is that wine has acidity.

The regulation itself runs to 61 pages defining “wine” and how we produce it. It covers the definitions of sparkling wine, liqueur (fortified) wine, grape must a so on. Read it if you’re very bored on a very wet Sunday afternoon.

It can be found here.

I suggest you have a large glass of wine by your side when you do…