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I have a number of bottles of wine society wine and a number of them dont show the units of alcohol in the bottle.
No. It is not a legal requirement. Alcohol by volume and capacity are.
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I bought a mixed range of wines from the sale at another merchant just recently. Out of about 40 bottles only 3 carry the warnings, one so small it would need a high-powered magnifying glass to read.
Yet I seem to recall seeing it more commonly on supermarket wines. Am I imagining that?
Much more common in supermarkets. If you are really interested have a look at
http://www.portmangroup.org.uk/docs/default-source/policy-responses/guidelines-on-unit-labelling.pdf
According to Wikipedia UK alcohol companies pledged in March 2011 to implement an innovative health labelling scheme to provide more information about responsible drinking on alcohol labels and containers. This voluntary scheme is the first of its kind in Europe and has been developed in conjunction with the UK Department of Health. The pledge stated:[5]
âWe will ensure that over 80% of products on shelf (by December 2013) will have labels with clear unit content, NHS guidelines and a warning about drinking when pregnant.â
At the end of 2014, 101 companies had committed to the pledge labelling scheme.[5]
There are five elements included within the overall labelling scheme, the first three being mandatory, and the last two optional:
- Unit alcohol content per container (mandatory) , and per serving (optional)
- Chief Medical Officersâ daily guidelines for lower-risk consumption
- Pregnancy warning (in text or as a graphic)
- Mention of âdrinkaware.co.ukâ (optional)
- Responsibility statement (e.g., âplease drink responsiblyâ) (optional)
Further detailed specifications about the labelling scheme are available from the âAlcohol labelling tool kitâ. [6]
Drinks companies had pledged to display the three mandatory items on 80% of drinks containers on shelves in the UK off-trade by the end of December 2013.[6] A report published in Nov 2014, confirmed that UK drinks producers had delivered on that pledge with a 79.3% compliance with the pledge elements as measured by products on shelf. Compared with labels from 2008 on a like-for-like basis, information on Unit alcohol content had increased by 46%; 91% of products displayed alcohol and pregnancy warnings (18% in 2008); and 75% showed the Chief Medical Officersâ lower risk daily guidelines (6% in 2008).[7]
The Wine Society are not one of the companies?
How would that work on the sort of wines that merchants (as opposed to shops) sell? Presumably by adding another back label?
At what point do we say that itâs not rocket science to work out the number of units you have in a bottle (if you want to track your alcohol intake that way) - given we are relatively knowledgeable customers - ?
(I only ask to stimulate debate. )
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The labelling rules are odd, South African wines always have huge sometimes humorous warnings on the label, USA ones have huge importer labels.
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It would help if we never invented the âunitâ as measurement of alcohol volume, and just stuck with cl to define recommended drinking limits.
Yes, I do realise that 1 unit is meant to be a drink, but often it is not, and that too causes problems with the system
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Is that Secateurs? Precisely the ones I was thinking about! Thereâs another winery that was great with them too too, might have been Raats?
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Yes, it is Badenhorstâs Secateurs! 
they always have slightly âamusingâ messages such as these. Me and the husband still canât decide if this is serious (donât they have pavements in Swartland?) or tongue-in-cheekâŚ
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For a standard bottle (75cl)
Units = ABV x 0.75
In reality the range is so small,
11% standard bottle = 8.25 Units
15%⌠= 11.25 Units
that its easiest to take a bottle of wine as containing 11 Units.
The units per serving is meaningless imo as very few people are using standard measures.
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Its easy if i am drinking at home. If i go out for a meal i have a large glass of wine with the meal . I dont often go out for a meal where i would drink wine. Say once a month. Before i was married it was easy to drink too much . My solution to that was not to have any alcoholic beverage in the house.
I noticed this one too. Not sure itâs humorous - I imagined it might be because, as all over Africa, a lot of South Africans drink and then walk home hammered along unlit roads. But then I donât imagine the hard-drinking local labourer population forms a big part of Adieâs clientele, so youâre probably right 
I donât want units on bottles. I prefer they donât have any English on at all, but in any case I want to be able to drink too much in bloody peace in my own home
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Ha! yes, indeed. Itâs probably another tick box exercise - a bit like âDrink Responsiblyâ. What does that mean? If you know what it means, youâre already doing it.
The other day I saw a graffiti next to the pool I go to; it said âNuke responsiblyâ. It made me chuckle.
From memory, there are about 6 different official warning messages for RSA wines, and the producers get to decide which one they use - presumably the one they think will least affect sales
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Thats the problem is it not. If you live on your own and you drink too much and you become ill it can cause inconvenience and expense to others. If like most people you rely on the national health service then the rest of the taxpayers will be paying for your medical treatment. Because your taxes wont be enough.
After the whole B****t disaster we arenât going to have an NHS.
And having a nanny-state unit warning isnât going to stop me (or anyone else) having a few extra glasses anyway.
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Makes sense! So naturally they choose the amusing ones.