Central London winery denied vintages and grape names on labels

Officials have told Central London winery London Cru that it isn't allowed to print grape names or vintage years on its wines.

Grapes arriving at London Cru last autumn

London Cru is set to launch four single varietal wines – Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Barbera – with grapes sourced from the 2013 vintage from wineries in southern France and Italy.

But, the group must first rename the wines after they fell foul ofrules implemented by the UK Food Standards Agency. Officials have said the wines cannot refer to grape variety or vintage year.

That means that, instead of being named according to grape variety, the wines will now be called SW6 White Wine 1 and SW6 Red Wine 1, 2 and 3.

The SW6 represents the postcode of the winery, which is based in west London and is part-funded by the founder of Roberson wine merchant, Cliff Roberson, and investor Will Tomlinson.

‘Sadly, and perhaps inevitably, bureaucracy triumphed over common sense,’ said London Cru.

‘When we got going with London Cru we always knew that we would lose the right to any appellation status that the fruit we bought might have, and we were happy to work on that basis.

‘What we weren’t expecting was that we wouldn’t be able to put the vintage or the variety on the label.’

Written by Chris Mercer