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Labelling guidelines for VQA wines

These are general guidelines to help you and your suppliers with the design of labels for VQA wines.  They provide only a summary of detailed and comprehensive rules and are not intended to be relied upon for compliance purposes.  If you have any questions regarding VQA label requirements, please contact VQA Ontario.

For VQA requirements, please refer to complete instructions for each wine category in the VQA Regulations (Regulation 406). For federal requirements, refer to the Guide to Food Labelling published by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (www.cfia-acia.agr.ca).

Please note that these guidelines are for Ontario only, other jurisdictions will have different requirements.

General

All information on the label must be legible and of sufficient size and contrast to be readily identified by the consumer.

The front label or “principal display panel” is defined as the side which would normally be displayed to the consumer.  For VQA purposes, wineries may choose which panel is the principal display. Federal regulations may be applied differently.

VQA regulated terms must be used in only accordance with an approval issued by VQA Ontario. These terms are not permitted for use in any form on the label of non-VQA wines or on a label of a VQA wine not entitled to the specific term.

Prohibited items

  • Registered or semi-generic terms used without permission
  • Phrases including VQA and other words implying superiority such as “VQA guaranteed” or “VQA reserve” are not permitted
    • Nothing that may mislead the consumer is permitted to appear on the label.
  • Geographical indications or traditional expressions that the wine is not entitled to in law

For Varietal wines (single, dual or triple)

Grape varieties that can be named on the label are restricted to authorized grape varieties and must appear as listed in the regulations. Synonyms, short forms or modified forms of grape variety names are not allowed unless specified in the Regulation.

Nothing may be appended to a variety name (see rules for limited exceptions – eg. Old Vines Foch, Fumé Blanc, Gamay Nouveau or Chardonnay musqué)

Vinifera/hybrid blends are only permitted when the hybrid is declared on the label and in accordance with other requirements for varietal wine

Declared varieties must be listed in descending order of content, in identical type

Nothing may be written between the geographical indication (VQA Ontario VQA or VQA viticultural area VQA) and the variety(ies) name(s). The geographical indication can appear either before or after the varietal name as long as nothing is written in between. This includes any descriptive term, for example “Icewine” or “Reserve”

Organic Labelling

The word "organic" or any other word intended to imply that the product has been produced organically or in a manner that is sensitive to the environment may be used only if the product meets the requirements of CAN/CGSB-32.310-99 - Organic Agriculture and has been duly certified by an agency accredited by the Standards Council of Canada.

VQA Label Approvals

VQA Ontario conducts a label review as part of the product approval process. Labels can only be approved in conjunction with the testing and approval of a specific wine. A wine approval may include conditions such as correcting labels which must be fulfilled in order to validate the approval. Failure to make the required label corrections will lead to the approval for the wine being revoked and removed from sale.

On request, VQA Ontario will review labels in advance of wine approvals and provide feedback, but final approval can only be issued with the wine approval. It is strongly recommended that final printing and labeling be done after the approval is received.

Label approvals can also be issued for a second label for use on a wine that is already approved.

 

VQA Mandatory Label Content

 

The following items must appear on the label:

 

The alcohol content (% alcohol by volume) to within a tolerance of +/- 1.1% of the tested value

  • It may be written as x% alc./vol. (don’t forget the periods) or x% alcohol by volume
  • It must appear on the front label
  • It must be at least 1.6 mm in height based on the measurement of the lower case “o”
  • When written out in full it must also appear in French

The common name of the product in both English and French

  • For VQA products this would be “wine” and “vin” or white wine and vin blanc or red wine and vin rouge
  • It must appear on the front label
  • It must be at least 1.6 mm in height based on the measurement of the lower case “o”

The quantity in the container

  • It must be metric units of volume, either millilitres or litres
  • The units may be written out in full or abbreviated to mL, ml, mℓ or L, l, ℓ with no punctuation (no periods)
  • Quantities of 1L or more are to be shown in litres, lesser quantities in millilitres
  • It must appear on the front label
  • It must be at least 1.6 mm in height based on the measurement of the lower case “m”

The name and address of the winery

  • Including the legal name of the company, the city or town, province and country
  • It must be at least 1.6 mm in height based on the measurement of the lower case “o”
  • It may appear on the front or back label

The country of origin

  • Product of Canada/ Produit du Canada
  • It must appear on the front label

The vintage year

  • Not mandatory for fortified, sparkling or liqueur wines
  • It must appear on the front of the bottle
  • It must appear as a full year (four numerals), abbreviations are not permitted

The letters “VQA” and a geographical indication

  • VQA Ontario VQA or VQA Niagara Peninsula VQA or VQA Pelee Island VQA or VQA Lake Erie North Shore VQA
  • VQA must appear on either side of the provincial indication or viticultural area in same font, colour and type size
  • It must appear on the front label

The VQA Logo in accordance with the VQA Graphics Standards Manual

  • Using approved graphics and colours
  • With at least one representation of the VQA logo that is 15 mm or larger
  • Bottles sizes smaller than 375 ml are subject to a 10 mm minimum
  • May be on a standard VQA capsule, cigar band or elsewhere on the front of the bottle (see the graphics manual for more detail)