Guide to Wine Law

Display of Awards

The following Code of Practice was prepared by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia in consultation with industry. 

The Code is set out below and also can be downloaded in PDF format from the WFA website. See also general information about Medal claims.

Code of Practice: Wine Industry Display of Awards

1. Producers will not use medals, stickers, symbols or other devices on a bottle or soft pack in order to misleadingly convey the impression that the wine has received an award at an open, objective and independent competition.

2. Awards received by an individual wine will bear the year of award and the class description and as a general rule shall only be applied to wines bearing the name under which the exhibit was entered. However, in recognition that a wine could be entered in a show before a wine has been finally allocated to a Brand, portability of an award so that it can stay with the wine which won it shall be permitted providing the wine show regulations allow.

3. Awards received by a class of wines (eg “Winemaker of the Year”, “Most Successful Exhibitor”) shall not be used to suggest the individual wine has received any particular distinction. These awards will not be presented on the bottle in the form of a medal.

4. The use of gold, black and gold discs, bronze discs and silver discs to promote anniversaries, events, sponsorship and the like, must not be used. Stickers and symbols or other devices should be sufficiently differentiated from show medals in terms of shape and/or colour to ensure no confusion It is recognised that identification stickers attached to a bottle for wine not intended for resale, such as supplied to airlines, may fall outside the control of the producer.

5. Compliance by a producer (including by subsidiaries or by associated companies) with this Code of Practice be a prerequisite for entry to any show of which the display of awards or medals are authorised by Wine Australia for export to Europe. Wine show regulations will need to be amended accordingly.

6. The Code of Practice will enter into force for all wine produced from the 2005 vintage.