3 min read
What is a wine e-label?
An e-label is a web page for one wine, opened by scanning the QR code on the bottle. Since December 2023 it is where most EU wineries put the ingredient list and nutrition declaration. Here is what goes on it, what may not, and how it works in practice.
Pick up a bottle of wine made in the EU after December 2023 and you will usually find a small QR code on the back label, with the word “Ingredients” next to it. Scan it and your phone opens a page with the ingredient list and the full nutrition declaration for that wine. That page is the e-label. Some people call it a digital label or an electronic label; the regulation calls it “electronic means”.
Why it exists
Regulation (EU) 2021/2117 made ingredient lists and nutrition declarations mandatory for wine, the same way they have been for other food for years. A full nutrition table and ingredient list in every language of every market would not fit on a wine label, and it would ruin the design. So the regulation lets producers keep two things on the bottle, the energy value and the allergens, and put the rest on a page reached through the QR code.
What goes on an e-label
Mandatory, if not printed on the bottle:
- The full list of ingredients, in descending order of weight, including additives.
- The full nutrition declaration per 100 ml: energy, fat, saturates, carbohydrate, sugars, protein, salt.
Allowed, as factual product information:
- Grape varieties, vintage, region, alcohol content, bottle size.
- Allergen and energy information repeated from the label.
Not allowed on that page:
- Marketing or sales content.
- Anything that collects data about the person scanning: no analytics cookies, no tracking pixels, no consent banner.
The information has to be available in a language consumers in each market understand. In practice that means offering the page in the official language of every country where the wine is sold.
What it looks like for the consumer
They point the phone camera at the code. No app, no account. The page loads in their language, shows the wine, the ingredients and the nutrition table, and that is it. A good e-label loads in under a second on a weak signal in a supermarket aisle, because that is where it gets scanned.
What it means for the winery
- The physical label stays clean: one small code and the word “Ingredients”.
- One set of data covers all 24 official EU languages.
- Mistakes can be fixed after printing. The code points to a page, and the page can change.
- Each wine gets its own page, so a vintage change is a new e-label, not a new print run of back labels.
How it works in Grapely
- Enter the wine’s details: name, vintage, ingredients, lab values. The energy value is calculated from ABV, residual sugar, acids and polyols.
- Publish. The e-label goes online in all 24 languages and the QR code is generated.
- Download the code in SVG, EPS, PDF or PNG and hand it to your designer.
- Update the page whenever you need to. Bottles already on shelves show the new content.
Your first three e-labels are free, with every feature. Create your account at app.grapely.io or compare plans.
Related reading
- What is a QR code? and how to print one that scans reliably
- How to calculate the energy value of wine
- What changed in 2026: the amendments in Regulation (EU) 2026/471
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- wine e-label
- european legislation
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