EU could be a headache for Buckfast

BUCKFAST, the tonic wine which has been made by monks in Devon for more than 100 years and enjoys a somewhat tainted popularity in Scotland, is under threat from new European rules.

The draft Nutrition and Health Claims for Foods directive from the European Commission aims to stop false claims of health benefits being made in food and drink labelling. The inclusion of the word "tonic" in the name of their product could be a problem for Buckfast’s makers.

Devon Lib-Dem MP Richard Younger-Ross has now asked the health minister Melanie Johnson to press for changes to the proposals.

The monastery at Buckfast Abbey, where the wine has been made for 120 years, is close to Mr Younger-Ross’s seat in Teignbridge, South Devon.

He said: "This problem has arisen out of a proposed directive which, in many ways, is a very good idea but which covers too wide an area. It is quite right to try to stop health claims for foods which are often not particularly healthy but, as it is phrased at the moment, the new law would be a bit of a catch-all.

"At present it may well stop the monks at Buckfast Abbey describing their product as tonic wine because there is a risk the word tonic would be interpreted as making a health claim and fall foul of the regulations."

Buckfast spokesman Bob Colquhoun said the monks have been lobbying Brussels to be excluded from the new rules.

He said: "We have been in discussion with the European Commission in Brussels regarding the situation, which is very much up in the air at the moment.

"On our current information we are hopeful that, in the final draft, Buckfast will be outside the legislation," he said.

Mr Younger-Ross added: "The probable inclusion of drinks like Buckfast Tonic Wine is nonsense. These regulations also include advertising, so it would be questionable whether pub mirrors with the slogan ‘Guinness is good for you’ could stay up."

The monks at Buckfast invented the wine in the 19th century and it has proved so successful that it is now marketed by an outside firm.

French monks who founded the current abbey in the 1880s started making the wine using a base wine from Spain, known as mistellas and added the tonic ingredients according to their own traditional recipe.