New Zealand joins the fight for a white wine emoji Leave a comment

The US failed in their bid for a white wine emoji, but maybe New Zealand will have better luck.

New Zealand Winegrowers is throwing its weight behind a petition requesting the Unicode Consortium, the body approving new emoji on phones, to add the ‘long missing’ white wine symbol.

A glass of red, two clinking champagne flutes, and a bottle of fizz are currently the only symbols available on devices to denote wine.

New Zealand white wine makes up 93 per cent of its global exports, New Zealand Winegrowers general manager Charlotte Read said.

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“We hope that by requesting the white wine emoji it will shine a spotlight on the breadth of high-quality white wine that New Zealand produces, as well securing the emoji that has long been missing from the keyboards of digital devices since their creation in the late 1990s,” Read said.

A movement emerged to get a specific white wine emoji in 2019 with California-based winery Kendall-Jackson submitting a 19-page proposal for review by authorities.

But the proposal failed to get approval; the Unicode Consortium that counts Google, Facebook, Microsoft and IBM executives among its board members said it would “continue to consider emoji for future addition”.

NZ Winegrowers marketing committee member and Te Whare Ra co-owner and winemaker Anna Flowerday said it made sense for New Zealand to take over efforts to add a white wine emoji.

“It was great timing with our ‘Pour Yourself a Glass of New Zealand‘ theme focus next month.

“Three of our white wine we make have their wine day in May, so it was just a right time to push for it again.

“I am hoping maybe we would get behind it because it’s a country organisation presenting it, and obviously we’ve got a strong case, given that New Zealand produces the majority of white wines,” she said.

International Sauvignon Blanc Day is celebrated on May 6, International Pinot Gris Day on May 17 and International Chardonnay Day is will be held on May 26.

Flowerday said she was hoping to see other producers around the world to get on board.

“It’s a little thing, but it’s a big thing.

“When I think of how often I would tag something, and I just automatically use the red wine glass because there isn’t a white wine one.

“And when you look at all the other emojis that there are for different foods, so if there’s a red wine one, it’s weird that there is not a white wine one,” Flowerday said.

Individuals and companies can suggest new emojis to the Silicon Valley-based Unicode Consortium.

The last batch of emojis was approved in September 2021, and included 37 new ones.

A melting face, a face with a peeking eye, a low battery and a disco ball were among the new additions rolled out across devices from October 2021 to early 2022.

Scotch Wine Bar and Restaurant owner Jacob Anderson and sommelier Arthur Griffoul are supportive of New Zealand Winegrowers’ petition.

“I can understand why the red wine emoji was the first most distinctive image, but the use of emojis makes the need for more representation,” said Anderson.

Awarded best wine experience by Cuisine and Food magazine this year, Scotch Wine Bar and Restaurant offers an evenly shared wine menu of red and white.

“It’s also pretty split in terms of popularity. There is some seasonal shift. I would say obviously more towards whites, probably a slightly bigger seller,” Anderson said.

Griffoul said he remembered when a skin tone variation was added to the existing yellow faces.

“Now you can have super white, tanned, darker… Those different tons of colour came up, and it didn’t seem to be such a deal.

“So surely, it’s easy enough that you can have a white wine emoji and who knows in the future like orange or rosy wine, especially,” Griffoul said.

A plea for a glass of rosé emoji came from Italy last year.

The Consortium for the Protection of Chiaretto di Bardolino, a popular Italian rosé, has presented its case to the Unicode Consortium, arguing that the absence of a symbol representing a glass of rosé was discriminatory.

While waiting to see what happens for the rosé, New Zealand Winegrowers will be running its petition for the white wine emoji until the end of May.