Exporting Wine: Labelling Guidelines for China
A7 Bottling Date
The date of bottling is required on Chinese labels. If for instance, the product is bottled on Australia day 2006 the following would be acceptable.
2006 01 26, or 20060126, or 2006-01-26, or Jan. 26th 2006.
Compliance with this requirement could be extremely difficult as the standard Australian batch or lot labelling using the Julian date code does not appear to be acceptable to the Chinese. Neither can the bottling date be applied in the form of a sticker, reprint or tampering which suggests that the label itself must contain the required information. We suggest that negotiation with your bottler is required in order to satisfy this traceability requirement.
A8 Minimum Durability Date
Wines with an alcohol content of 10% or less are required to include a minimum durability date. Wines over 10% alcohol are exempt from this requirement (GB7718-5.2.1 and GB10344-5.2). Nevertheless many importers and/or regulatory authorities seem unaware of this exemption and it is advisable to include a statement such as ‘recommended to drink before (year)’.
A9 Product Type
The product type is mandatory for China. This can be indicated by the actual sugar content or by the category. The following categories apply;
A9.1 Still Wines
