American consumers want alcohol and nutritional content on wine labels, a recent survey has shown.

Shape Up America!, a group formed by former federal Surgeon General Dr C Everett Koop, conducted an online survey of 503 adults.

The survey found that consumers wanted full information, including percentage of alcohol by volume, serving size, quantity of alcohol per serving, a ‘standard drink’ definition and the number of such drinks in a bottle.

The organisation said 92% of survey respondents wanted the quantity of alcohol listed as their first priority, followed by calories (84%), carbohydrates (75%), fat (71%) and protein (66%).

Its findings were handed to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), which is considering nutritional labeling for alcoholic beverages.

‘The TTB will have to determine the influence that such small sample online surveys should have in its final rule,’ Wendell Lee, General Counsel of the California trade association the Wine Institute, told decanter.com.

He added that, ‘the majority of comments in the public record do not support serving facts labeling for wine.’

Shape Up America! was created by Koop to to increase awareness of America’s obesity problem.

Written by Howard G Goldberg in New York

Howard G Goldberg
Howard G Goldberg
Decanter Magazine, Food & Wine Writer

Howard G Goldberg is a wine writer and critic based in New York City. He made his name writing about wine for The New York Times, where he worked for 34 years. He has written various books on food and wine, including Prime: The Complete Prime Rib Book and All About Wine Cellars. He compiled The New York Times Book of Wine – a collection of the publication’s best wine articles.