EU wine labelling in 2026: what Regulation (EU) 2026/471 changes, and what it doesn’t

When we published our 2025 guide to EU wine labelling, the European Commission had just proposed its “wine package”. Since then the proposal was negotiated, adopted, published and corrected twice. This article is the update. Every point below was checked against the adopted text of Regulation (EU) 2026/471 and its corrigenda, with article numbers, so your compliance team can verify each claim rather than take our word for it.

The short version

How we got here

• 28 March 2025: the Commission proposes the wine package (COM(2025) 137).
• 4 December 2025: Parliament and Council reach a provisional agreement.
• 10 February 2026: Parliament adopts the text; the Council follows on 23 February.
• 26 February 2026: Regulation (EU) 2026/471 is published in the Official Journal.
• 18 March 2026: entry into force.
• May 2026: two corrigenda are published, one for the Italian version, one for all languages (see below).
• 19 September 2027: the new labelling terms apply.

1. What has not changed

Regulation (EU) 2026/471 does not touch the obligations that most wineries are still working through. For wine produced from 8 December 2023 and sold in the EU:

• The list of ingredients and the nutrition declaration are mandatory.
• The energy value and allergens must be printed on the physical label. The rest of the nutrition declaration and the full ingredient list may be provided by electronic means, in practice a QR code (Article 119(4) and (5) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013).
• The electronic page may carry no sales or marketing content and may not collect or track user data.
• The information must be available in a language consumers in each market understand.
• According to the Commission’s 2023 guidance notice, the QR code must be identified on the label with the word “Ingredients” in the same field of vision as the other compulsory particulars; a bare “i” symbol or a generic logo is not enough.

If your labels were compliant on 1 January 2026, they are still compliant today. The changes below are additions, not replacements.

2. New names for alcohol-free and reduced-alcohol wines

This is the headline change. Article 1, point (10)(a) of the new regulation rewrites Article 119(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013. Where a de-alcoholisation treatment has been applied to all or part of the product, the category name (wine, sparkling wine, and so on) is supplemented by:

• “alcohol-free” if the actual alcoholic strength does not exceed 0,5 % vol, accompanied by the expression “0,0 %” if it does not exceed 0,05 % vol;
• “reduced alcohol” if the actual alcoholic strength is above 0,5 % vol and at least 30 % below the minimum actual alcoholic strength of the category before de-alcoholisation.

A new point (k) adds a separate compulsory particular: every grapevine product that has undergone de-alcoholisation, fully or partially, must carry the term “produced by de-alcoholisation”.

Three practical consequences:

1. The terms “de-alcoholised” and “partially de-alcoholised” introduced by Regulation (EU) 2021/2117 disappear from labels once the new text applies.
2. A wine reduced to more than 0,5 % vol but by less than 30 % of the category minimum gets neither term. It is labelled with its category name plus “produced by de-alcoholisation”.
3. The terms are mandatory particulars, not marketing claims. You cannot keep writing “de-alcoholised” after the application date.

When: 19 September 2027, as corrected. Under Article 5, products labelled under the old rules before that date may continue to be placed on the market until stocks are exhausted.

Correction to our 2025 guide. We described these terms as already introduced in March 2025. They were only proposed then. The proposed “alcohol-light” did not survive the negotiations: the UK government’s memorandum on the provisional agreement still spoke of “low-alcohol”, while the adopted text says “reduced alcohol”. The thresholds also differ from what we wrote: “alcohol-free” covers wines up to 0,5 % vol, and “0,0 %” is an additional expression for wines at or under 0,05 % vol, not a stand-alone category.

3. Wine solely intended for export: no ingredient list, no nutrition declaration

Article 119 gets a new paragraph 6: “the requirement to indicate the particulars referred to in points (h) and (i) shall not apply in the case of wine products solely intended for export.” Points (h) and (i) are the nutrition declaration and the list of ingredients. Recital 23 explains the reason: importing countries have their own rules, and double labelling was burdensome.

When: here the story is unusual. The regulation as first published deferred the whole of Article 1, point (10), to 19 September 2027, which would have included the export exemption. The all-languages corrigendum published in May 2026 narrows the deferral to point (10)(a) only. Paragraph 6 therefore applies from the regulation’s entry into force, 18 March 2026, and the correction takes effect as if it had always read that way. This is the substance behind the “retroactive correction” headlines of last spring.

Three cautions:

• “Solely intended for export” is a narrow condition. If a batch can end up on an EU shelf, label it in full.
• The importing country’s rules still apply. The United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Japan each have their own requirements.
• The exemption covers only points (h) and (i). Allergens, alcoholic strength, provenance and the other particulars remain mandatory.

4. Compulsory particulars once per package

A short addition to Article 119(1): “The obligation to indicate the compulsory particulars on any given packaging applies only once in respect of that packaging.” Gift boxes, multipacks and back labels no longer require duplicating the full set of particulars on every surface. Applies from 19 September 2027.

5. The QR identifier will be harmonised

The regulation gives the Commission a new power, in Article 122(1)(d), to adopt delegated acts on:

• “the identification on the package or on the label attached thereto of the electronic means referred to in Article 119(4) and (5), including by means of a common pictogram or symbol instead of words”;
• “the form and layout of the information provided by electronic means”, so that e-labels can be simplified, adapted to technology and made more accessible.

Recital 24 states the goal: a harmonised, “language-free” way of identifying the QR code, because diverging national practices were hurting the single market. The same power is added for aromatised wine products.

Status at the time of writing (28 October 2026): no delegated act has been adopted. The Commission opened “Have your say” consultations on 18 February 2026 for six wine-sector acts, including the electronic labelling rules, and draft delegated regulations were circulated to Member States in the summer. Adoption was planned for the last quarter of 2026. Until an act applies, the existing practice stands: the word “Ingredients” next to the code.

What this means in practice: keep the QR code dynamic, so that the content can change without reprinting, and design the label so that a small pictogram can replace or sit next to the word “Ingredients” later. Grapely labels are live pages, so the content side needs no action from you.

6. About those “retroactive correction” headlines

Two corrigenda were published in spring 2026, and trade press reported that wineries might have to redo their labels. Here is what they actually contain:

• Italian version only: the terms dealcolizzazione and dealcolizzato were replaced by dealcolazione and dealcolato throughout the text.
• All language versions: a plural was fixed in Article 3 (“protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications”), and Article 6 was corrected so that only point (10)(a) is deferred to 19 September 2027.

Neither changes a single word on a label sold in the EU. If you printed labels after 26 February 2026 for the EU market, there is nothing to redo.

7. Also on the radar

• Ireland. The Irish government postponed its mandatory health warnings on alcohol, originally due in May 2026, to 2028, and said it would work within a common European framework instead.
• Packaging labels. The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU) 2025/40 applies in general from 12 August 2026, but the harmonised sorting and material labels of Article 12 depend on a Commission implementing act and are expected from 2028. Not a wine-specific rule, but it will touch your bottle.
• Spirit drinks. Regulation (EU) 2026/471 also removes the obligation to show the producer’s name in the same field of vision as a geographical indication; products labelled before 14 May 2026 can be sold until stocks run out.
• Aromatised wine products. Sangria, Glühwein and other aromatised products based on de-alcoholised wine use the same new terms, with the same timing.

What to do now

1. EU-market labels: nothing to change. Check that the word “Ingredients” sits next to the QR code and that energy and allergens are printed.
2. De-alcoholised or partially de-alcoholised wines: plan artwork for the 19 September 2027 switch. Decide for each wine which of the three cases it falls into, and add “produced by de-alcoholisation”.
3. Export-only wines: you may drop the ingredient list and nutrition declaration from the EU-format label today, but only for products that will never be sold in the EU, and only if the destination market does not require them.
4. E-labels: keep the QR dynamic and watch for the delegated act on the common pictogram. Expect a transition period once it is adopted.
5. Re-read your supplier’s claims. Several “2026 compliance guides” circulating online state that the export exemption applies from 2027, or that a pictogram is already mandatory. Both are wrong as of today.

Sources

• Regulation (EU) 2026/471 on EUR-Lex
• Adopted text, PE-CONS 65/1/25 REV 1 (Council register): Article 1, points (10) and (11); Articles 5 and 6; recitals 22 to 26
• Corrigendum, all language versions (Council document 7754/26)
• Corrigendum, Italian version (Council document 6905/26)
• European Parliament press release on the provisional agreement, 4 December 2025
• European Parliament legislative train: the wine package
• Commission notice with questions and answers on wine labelling (C/2023/1190)
• Northern Ireland DAERA assessment of Regulation (EU) 2026/471, 27 February 2026
• AGRINFO report on the labelling of low-alcohol wines
• Ireland delays alcohol warning labels until 2028 (The Drinks Business, July 2025)

Related reading: What is an e-label? · How to calculate the energy value of wine · The 2025 guide to EU wine labelling