The best time of the year

May is my favourite month of the year. The evenings are long, the gardens and parks are in full bloom and there is a feeling of anticipation in the air for the long summer ahead. Our extensive summer drinks feature in this issue will hopefully motivate you to get organised for the season ahead when opportunities abound as Irish people are renowned for impromptu socialising with even a hint of good weather. Having the right offering to keep all customers satisfied will ensure that you can really make hay when the sun shines.

Our cover story this month is with John Clendennen, the new president of the VFI. As the youngest president ever of the VFI he comes with plenty of enthusiasm for the role and also with a sense of optimism stemming from a survey carried out on behalf of the VFI citing that 72% of publicans outside of Dublin say turnover is now equal or greater to pre-Covid times and many are planning to upgrade their premises in the coming year. Notwithstanding the uncertainty surrounding the impending Alcohol Bill and continuing issues with energy prices, there is a real feeling that things are on the up and it’s time to plan for the future, with a little less caution than the previous few years.

A big focus of this issue is our spread on Rioja Wine. We really enjoyed working with Rioja Wine to bring together a number of representatives from the on trade, off trade and supply chain to talk about this really unique wine region and the huge diversity that exists across the 100km’s of Spain’s northern countryside. It was an informative occasion for those in the trade to discuss their lived experiences of selling Rioja wine and having the chance to engage directly with the winemakers to gain a deeper understanding of the region and the breadth of wine varieties. You can read all about it on page 20.

In this issue’s bar profile, we sat down with Erwin Pollard, co-owner of Brickyard in Dundrum and heard his story and how he has realised that sometimes less is more. With the work life balance bill coming into being, it shows that doing one thing really well and focusing your energies on that can sometimes bear more fruit than taking on too much and letting it overwhelm you. Brickyard is the epitome of a pub that covers all bases and has filled a gap in this Dublin suburb.

And finally, the new alcohol labelling laws introduced by Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly have caused a bit of a stir in Europe. Considering the amount of alcohol related health issues in the Irish health system, this would seem like a sensible choice. However, it’s not so cut and dry and it means that our labelling will differ from the rest of Europe, which could affect trade and cost money to change labels if exporting product from Ireland. We’ll watch this space over the next couple of months and see how it plays out but could it be that Ireland jumped the gun on this one or are we actually leading the way in health labelling and will encourage other countries to follow suit? Time will tell. Wishing you all a good month ahead and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any news, views or thoughts on the drinks industry.

Sláinte, Fionnuala.

Fionnuala Carolan Editor fionnualacarolan@mediateam.ie

SpiritsEurope believes the draft regulation represents a trade barrier that hampers the free movement of goods

Minister for Health brings into law world’s first comprehensive health labelling of alcohol products despite objections from SpiritsEurope

The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly has signed into law the Public Health Alcohol Labelling Regulations 2023 and the remaining provisions of Section 12 of the Public Health Alcohol Act.

Section 12 and the Labelling Regulations together introduce comprehensive health labelling of alcohol products sold in Ireland and provide that similar health information will be available for customers in licensed premises.

The law provides that the labels of alcohol products will state the calorie content and grams of alcohol in the product. They will warn about the risk of consuming alcohol when pregnant and will also warn of the risk of liver disease and fatal cancers from alcohol consumption. The labels will direct the consumer to the HSE website, www.askaboutalcohol.ie, for further information.

There is a three-year lead-in time built into the law in order to give businesses significant time to prepare for the change. The law will apply from 22 May 2026.

Minister Donnelly said: “This law is designed to give all of us as consumers a better understanding of the alcohol content and health risks associated with consuming alcohol. With that information, we can make an informed decision about our own alcohol consumption.

“Packaging of other food and drink products already contains health information and, where appropriate, health warnings. This law is bringing alcohol products into line with that.”

Minister of State for Public Health, Wellbeing and the National Drugs Strategy, Hildegarde Naughton added: “Everyone has a right to be told about the risks associated with a product before we consume it. This law is designed to ensure all consumers of alcohol have access to clear and concise information about the risks from alcohol.

“The medical evidence is clear that a cancer risk applies even at lower levels of alcohol consumption.”

Minister Donnelly said: “I welcome that we are the first country in the world to take this step and introduce comprehensive health labelling of alcohol products. I look forward to other countries following our example.”

However, SpiritsEurope has recently submitted a formal complaint asking the European Commission to open an infringement procedure against Ireland for breaching EU law with its planned new regulation on labelling rules for alcoholic beverages.

It said the proposed measures risk fragmenting the internal market by deviating from EU harmonised labelling rules. They also represent a disproportionate trade barrier not justifiable under EU law based on the public evidence put forward.

SpiritsEurope believe that the regulations – which would require additional Ireland-specific labelling information, including text-based health warnings on alcoholic beverages –represents a disproportionate trade barrier hampering the free movement of goods.

In practice, the new rules would prevent economic operators from selling alcoholic beverages legally sold in all other EU Member States in Ireland unless the products were re-labelled with additional information on the grams of alcohol and on the number of calories in the container, as well as health warnings text and pictogrammes.

This will make it considerably more complex and more expensive for nonIrish producers and distributors from within and outside the EU to make their products available to Irish consumers.

“For good reasons, the right to restrict the freedom of movement of goods in the Single Market is subject to strict rules: trade barriers must be justified and proportionate, meaning that no other options, less restrictive of the trade between member states are available to Ireland. We believe Ireland has failed to demonstrate the admissibility of their measures on both these criteria,” said Ulrich Adam, director general of SpiritsEurope.

“In addition, the Commission is bound to present new, harmonised labelling rules for alcoholic beverages soon. In such a situation, common practice has it that plans for deviating national rules should be paused,” Adam added.

In its complaint, SpiritsEurope outlines why the draft measures cannot be justified under Article 36 of the Treaty and constitute a disproportionate barrier to trade in the Single Market.

“We fully acknowledge and respect Ireland’s right to take action to ensure a high level of protection of the public health of its citizens,” added Adam. “Numerous meaningful, proportionate, and evidence-based public health measures to help reduce alcoholrelated harm are available. However, it would appear that Ireland conducted an insufficient analysis of the proportionality of their particular policy choices on labelling, as other suitable, yet less restrictive options to trade clearly exist.”