IMW webinar series: Labelling and transparency

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You can watch recordings of the IMW Webinar Seres here.

For many centuries, wine has been considered a special kind of food. Yet where it is natural to demand and expect to see the ingredients, calories and nutritional data for food, this has not been the case for wine. But this is about to change.

There is an obvious consumer right for wine labelling transparency. Demand has been created not least by the natural wine movement and how alcohol affects public health.

Instead of lobbying for yet more years of exceptional treatment, the wine industry accepted the challenge and voluntarily put forward proposals for transparent and fair labelling. The recommendations are a result of years of analysis and debate.

By 2023, wine labelling will be dramatically different.

Our panellists will present and discuss their different perspectives on the challenges and the solutions proposed.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW will moderate this lively debate, and there will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions.

Panel (in speaking order)
Pau Roca – Director General, OIV
Jancis Robinson OBE MW – view MW profile
Dr Ignacio Sánchez Recarte – Secretary General, CEEV
Richard Bampfield MW – view MW profile
Dominic Buckwell – non-executive director, WineGB
Caroline Hermann MW – view MW profile
Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW – Moderator, view MW profile

About the panellists
Pau Roca
Pau is currently the director general of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), and has been representing Spain at the OIV since 1992. He was, among other things, vice president of an expert group concerning sustainability and climate change between 2016 and 2018.

Jancis Robinson OBE MW
Voted the world’s most influential wine critic in separate polls in the US, France and internationally in 2018, Jancis Robinson MW views herself as a wine writer rather than a wine critic. She writes daily for JancisRobinson.com and weekly for the Financial Times. She is founder-editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine, co-author with Hugh Johnson of The World Atlas of Wine (4.7 million copies sold just before the 8th edition was published in October 2019) and co-author of Wine Grapes, each of these books recognised as a standard reference worldwide. The 24-Hour Wine Expert (2017) is a slim paperback guide to the practical essentials of wine. Jancis travels all over the world to conduct wine events – often for the global literacy initiative Room to Read – and in 2018 launched her own hand-made, dishwasher-friendly, ideal wine glass. In 1984 she was the first person outside the wine trade to pass the rigorous Master of Wine exams and in 2003 she was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen, on whose cellar she now advises. In one week in April 2016 she was presented with France’s Officier du Mérite Agricole, the German VDP’s highest honour and, in the US, her fourth James Beard Award. She now has six, including being the only wine writer elevated the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame. She loves and lives for wine in all its glorious diversity, generally favouring balance and subtlety over sheer mass.

Dr Ignacio Sanchez Recarte
Dr Ignacio Sánchez Recarte was named Secretary General of CEEV, the association representing the interests of European wine companies, in 2015. Before that he served as Director for Internal Market & Sustainability at spiritsEUROPE, the European representative body for spirit producers, and as Director of Environment affairs and Innovation, at Bodegas Chivite, a Spanish wine group. For the previous 7 years, Ignacio worked for the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), the scientific and technical intergovernmental organization in the field of wine, first as Head of the Viticulture Unit, then as Head of the Economy and Law Unit. Prior to this, he was a researcher in the Food Technology Department of the Public University of Navarra. Ignacio is an Agronomic Engineer from the Public University of Navarra and obtained his PhD in Engineering at the University of Lleida. A Spanish citizen, Ignacio is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. In 2016, he was elected Vice-President of FIVS, the international federation of wine and spirits producers, and Vice-President of CELCAA, the organization representing EU associations and companies active in the sector of agricultural and agri-food trading.

Richard Bampfield MW
Richard Bampfield MW was on the organising committee of the the two day Sustainable Wine Forum, held virtually in November 2020. Richard, having passed the Master of Wine Exam in 1990, joined the Australian producer, Brown Brothers, and managed their European operations until 1999. He left them to set up his own company, specialising in public relations and offering wine consultancy, talks, tours and courses. Principal clients now include Lidl, Albert Bichot (Burgundy), Leith’s School of Food and Wine, Santa Rita (Chile) and Château Brown (Bordeaux).  He is also a partner in Wine Ring, the leading personalisation software for the wines and spirits industry. Richard regularly guides groups of students and press on visits to Bordeaux and Burgundy, and has been actively involved in the promotion of English wines. He is now probably best known for his work writing tasting notes and evaluating wines for Lidl. Richard is a past Chairman of the Association of Wine Educators and was the European Champagne Ambassador 2009. He is a Panel Chair at the prestigious International Wine Challenge in both the UK and China.

Dominic Buckwell
Dominic is a UK qualified lawyer with over 25 years’ experience in international trade. He has worked in private practice as a barrister and solicitor advocate, and in industry as General Counsel and Company Secretary under both US and Chinese owners. Since 2015 he has worked with WineGB (previously the UK Vineyard Association) advising the Trade Body for English Wine on legal and regulatory matters and concerns of vineyard and winery members. Dominic is a non-executive director of WineGB, with responsibility for governmental matters, consultations and now the UK delegation to OIV. He is a member of the Association of Wine Lawyers (AIDV), the Areni Institute for Fine Wine, the Circle of Wine Writers and 67 Pall Mall. He updated details for the Rhone and its appellations in Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia published in 2020. A Certified Sommelier, he has WSET Level 3 and is currently taking the Diploma. He has judged wine for IWC, Glass of Bubbly and the ‘WotWine’ consumer app. Dominic lives with his family in Sussex in the South England, on a small estate growing their own fruit vegetables and keeping a few pigs. In 2019 he planted a second grape vine, doubling and registering them as the smallest registered vineyard in the world.

Caroline Hermann MW 
Caroline Hermann MW brings a unique perspective to the wine sector as an attorney with a focus on corporate sustainability, environmental law, and international trade. Based in Washington DC, Caroline leads the import-export programme for wine, beer, and spirits at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and is the former head of wine labelling. Prior to joining TTB, Caroline was a federal enforcement attorney for over a decade in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Civil Enforcement. She has also served as the general counsel to an environmental non-profit organisation. There, she focused on corporate financial and sustainability risk management and reporting, with a concentration in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment factors. Caroline began her wine journey in 2005, working in retail wine sales while pursuing her studies with the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). Now a certified WSET instructor, Caroline teaches wine and sake industry professionals at the Capital Wine School. Caroline consults for wineries, trains restaurant wine and beverage staff, and judges international wine competitions. She is active on a number of non-profit boards, including the IMW Council as well as the governance and sustainability advisory committees.

Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW
Pedro Ballesteros Torres MW has studied around the world, including at the renowned wine regions of Jerez, Burgundy, Napa Valley and Bordeaux, and holds an agronomical engineer degree and a master’s in viticulture and oenology among his qualifications. A columnist at several magazines in Spain and Belgium, also regularly writing for wine magazines in the UK and Italy, Pedro works in four languages. He is the chair of major international wine competitions, including Decanter’s WWA, Vinitaly’s 5Stars, Concours Mondial Bruxelles and others. He is active in the fields of promotion and education, and sits in several institutional boards. Pedro is a national expert at OIV, a member of Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino, an Italian Wine and VDP Ambassador, a Prud’homme Jurade St Emilion and commended to the Spanish Order of Agricultural Merit.

About the IMW webinar series
Webinars are open to anyone who wishes to attend. Registrations are capped and will close when fully booked. All guests are welcome to submit questions in advance or during the webinar. The IMW uses the Zoom webinar platform, instructions on how to join will be emailed to you. Please check your junk or spam folder if you do not receive an email confirmation when registering. Unless specified otherwise, webinars are recorded and will be made available online here a few days after the event.

If you have any questions, please contact Belinda Eaton at beaton@mastersofwine.org.