The label The grape
Is a wine labelled “Shiraz” at least 85 percent Shiraz?
A grape printed on a label is a claim about what is in the bottle, and there is a floor under it: at least 850 mL in every litre, or 85 parts in 100, must be that grape.
General information about Australian wine labelling law. Each rule names its source; check the regulator’s page before you rely on it.
85 of 100, and what the rest of the wine may be.
The share of the grape
So a wine labelled “Shiraz” is not all Shiraz. The Act defines the variety of a wine as the variety of the grapes from which the wine was obtained, and the Wine Australia Regulations 2018 then set how much of it has to be that variety before the name may go on the label.
For the purposes of subsection 40F(6) of the Act, if wine originating in Australia is made from 2 or more varieties, the wine may be described and presented as being of a single variety only if at least 850ml/L of the wine is obtained from that variety.
Wine Australia Regulations 2018 (Cth) s 25(2), on the Federal Register of Legislation
Before a grape name can be used at all, it has to be a name the trade recognises. A name used for a variety on a label must be a variety name, or a synonym of one, recognised by at least one of three international organisations: the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, or the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute.
Wine Australia adds the consequence that matters for a shopper: a label may claim a variety only by a name, or a synonym of it, that appears on one of those lists, and a made-up name that resembles a variety cannot be used in a way that misleads.
One, two and three grapes
More than one variety name on a label is allowed, under its own rule. Read the three bars below the way the rule reads: the named grapes have to account for at least 85 of the 100 parts between them, they are set down in descending order, and each named grape must be present in a greater proportion than any grape the label leaves off.
The order on the label
For the purposes of subsection 40F(6) of the Act, if the description and presentation of wine originating in Australia refers to more than one variety: the description and presentation must list the varieties in descending order of their proportions in the wine; and each variety named in the description and presentation must be present in greater proportion in the composition of the wine than any variety that is not named; and in total, at least 850ml/L of the wine must be obtained from the named varieties.
Wine Australia Regulations 2018 (Cth) s 25(3), on the Federal Register of Legislation
That middle test does more work than it looks like it does. It means the largest grape in the bottle cannot be left off the label: if the biggest share of the wine is a grape the label does not name, then every named grape is present in a smaller proportion than that unnamed one, and the label fails the rule.
Worked through: a bottle that is 45 parts Grenache, 30 parts Shiraz and 25 parts Viognier may be labelled “Shiraz, Viognier” only if 45 parts of Grenache is not in it, because the rule would need each named grape to beat the unnamed Grenache share, and neither 30 nor 25 does. Label it “Grenache, Shiraz, Viognier” and the three named grapes add up to 100 parts, the order is largest first, and nothing is left off.
The Regulations apply the same reading to the whole category in one line: where the description and presentation refers to more than one variety, what the label says and the order it says it in are both fixed by what is in the bottle.
What the share leaves out
For the purposes of determining the proportion of the varieties under subsection (2) or (3), the quantity of products used for possible sweetening and cultures of microorganisms, not exceeding a total of 50ml/L, is excluded.
Wine Australia Regulations 2018 (Cth) s 25(4), on the Federal Register of Legislation
The exclusions are narrow and measured: up to 50 mL in every litre of sweetening products and microorganism cultures comes out of the calculation, which is what keeps a small adjustment for the ferment from putting a label out of step with its own blend.
Fortified wine has its own exclusion. Where the wine has had grape spirit or brandy added, the volume of the wine is calculated without it, so the share of the named variety is measured on the wine rather than on the fortifying spirit.
One last point of arithmetic, on the home page’s bars: the 85 under the grape is the floor for the named grapes together, not a description of the blend. A label naming two grapes can be true of a wine that is 60 parts one and 25 parts the other, with the last 15 parts made of grapes the label does not name, so long as none of those unnamed grapes is present in a greater proportion than either named one.