“It’s crazy that this product, which is pure undiluted premium wine, and combines total integrity of flavour with much lower alcohol content, is somehow illegal,” said Tony Dann, Chairman of Sovio Wines. “The Government is urging the drinks industry to provide a wider range of lower alcohol products, consumers want to drink them and yet the FSA is seemingly trying to kill a product that everyone wants”.

An additional dispute concerns labelling – and an EU ruling that a wine with less than 9% alcohol cannot be labelled as conventional wine (even if it really does consist of 100% wine). Sovio says that as the product is below 9% alcohol it falls outside regulations which control conventional wines and claims Sovio’s label falls under the authority of Britain’s Trading Standards service. Sovio consulted extensively with Trading Standards who gave written approval of the product and its labelling. “Then”, says Dann, “the FSA completely stunned us by banning it.”

Sovio’s position has been strongly backed by Jeremy Beadles, Chief Executive of Britain’s respected Wine and Spirit Trade Association. He has referred extensively to the Government’s “confusing message” – encouraging more responsible drinking on the one hand, while allowing the agency responsible for our diet and health to try to ban a product like Sovio. Sovio said research had proved the wine was of enormous interest to consumers – and of particular appeal to women – who often don’t want to drink today’s heavier style wines which can have an alcohol content of up to 15%.

Under the “Spinning Cone Column” process, wine is gently spun out as a thin film over a series of spinning cones in a vacuum. Aroma and flavour molecules are segregated from the alcohol while this is partially evaporated. The process is widely used for adjusting alcohol even in regular wines in the New World, and the technology has also been employed in food production for decades. Although Tony Dann estimates Sovio has lost close to £1 million because of the FSA’s actions, Sovio refuses to lie down.