Sweetness Codes in Alsace?

The new head of the Alsace Wine Professionals had suggested every bottle of Alsacian wine should have a sweetness code (from 1-5), Some like Zind Humbrecht, already do it, but this would be a real change for this region. Do you agree with this suggestion?

"Sweetness codes could be a feature of every bottle of Alsace wine if the new president of the Alsace trade council has his way.

Rémy Gresser, a biodynamic producer who farms 11ha (hectares) in Andlau, who is now president of the Conseil Interprofessionnel des Vins d'Alsace (CIVA), already uses a sweetness code for his own wines. He told decanter.com the labelling system for the region is 'incomplete' at present, and that he plans to introduce a code to indicate a wine's sweetness on a one-to-five scale. Once this is established, he will invite producers to use the terms sec, demi-sec, moelleux and liquoreux on their labels, too".

More at http://www.decanter.com/news/301323.html.

[David M. Bueker]

I would prefer the labeing with sec, demi-sec, etc rather than the numbers.

The new head of the Alsace Wine Professionals had suggested every bottle of Alsacian wine should have a sweetness code (from 1-5), Some like Zind Humbrecht, already do it, but this would be a real change for this region. Do you agree with this suggestion?

I agree with David, sec, demi-sec, etc would be easier because they are used elsewhere in France and people would have a baseline for how to understand the terms. I would have no idea what to make of a wine with a sweetness level of 3. (Plus those terms just sound better than a numerical scale).

Admittedly, my attitude may be a cop-out because I suppose I could learn over time. But I'm not sure how that would help the consumer either. What is the maximum: honey? What is the minimum? How are we benchmarking these numbers. (I realize you can have the numbers stand for ranges of r.s., but that's what the term sec, demi-sec etc already do, without implying the same ordinal progression).

Of course, the pseudo precision of Wine Points hasn't stopped that craze from taking off either, so what do I know...

Here is Wikipedia's explanation of the Zind Humbrecht sweetness scale -

* Indice 1: analytically dry or tasting dry. (This would correspond to the "classical Alsace style".)
* Indice 2: not analytically dry, but the sweetness is not apparent on the palate
* Indice 3: a semi-sweet wine
* Indice 4: a sweet wine; these wines may correspond to Vendange Tardive wines from many other producers.
* Indice 5: high sweetness, corresponding to a Vendange Tardive in richness but with less noble rot character. These will be wines which Zind-Humbrecht could have bottled as Vendange Tardive, but have elected not to because of their style. *

An important thing to remember is that the Z-H notations are applied subjectively and take account of balancing acidity.

I'm with the others in preferring "sec", "demi-sec" and moelleux" to the numerical scale, if something can be done to control the use of the term "sec". Too many wines so labelled are, to my palate, distinctly sweet. Apparently the "average" consumer wants to see "sec" or "dry" on the label but actually prefers some perceptible sugar.

What we do not want is a proliferation of different sweetness scales.