Making, trading and transporting wine

Do you produce, trade, or transport wine in the Netherlands? You must comply with several European regulations for wine. There are for instance rules for producing wine, labelling bottles, reporting production, and sample fields. You have to register as a wine producer and you may require a permit, consent, or approval for certain activities.

Production, trade, and transport of wine

Do you make, trade, or transport wine? You must register as a wine producer with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland, RVO, in Dutch).

As a wine trader, you must report your stock annually to RVO (reference date: 31 July, in Dutch).

If you plan to transport wine or wine growing products (in Dutch), you should request the relevant transport documents by email from RVO.

Registration of production

Wine producers must keep track of their activities in their administration (in Dutch). You have to keep records on:

• the harvest in a harvest book (oogstboek, in Dutch)
• the treatment of wine (in Dutch), such as enrichment, sweetening, or adjusting the acidity including a supporting fermentation administration
• inbound and outbound bottles in a bottle administration

You should keep your administration for at least 5 years. The Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (Nederlandse Voedsel en Warenautoriteit, NVWA) may check your administration.

Registration of local produce, sample fields, and experiments

If you want to register a specific, regional type of wine as Protected Designation of Origin, you have to apply for protection to RVO (in Dutch). You have 2 options:

• Protected Designation of Origin (PDO)
• Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)

If you want to use a new type of grape, you must apply for a sample field permit (in Dutch). If you want to experiment with the wine-making process (oenological experiment) you should request permission from RVO to sell the experimental wine.

Labelling Wine

You must comply with the rules for wine labels (in Dutch), such as:

• it must have a mandatory font size and specific logos
• it must contain information on for instance place of production, allergens, alcohol contents, and volume
• if the wine is produced from the harvest of a sample field it needs to be mentioned as ‘wijn van proefaanplant’ and ‘Nederland’

You must include the name, location and country of the producer, seller, importer, and bottler. You may replace the details of 1 party with a label code number (etiketcodenummer). You can request a label code number with RVO (option codenummer wijnetiket, in Dutch)