Here we go again. Surely you have found the emoji representing a bottle of sparkling wine, the toast emoji and the glass of red wine emoji. There's also a bunch of grapes emoji, but only a black one. And white wine? There is no trace of emojis representing a glass of white wine and also a glass of rosé wine.

If you are wondering why there are no white wine and rose wine glass emojis, continue reading our article. You will discover a curious story.

Emoji: brief history

Let's start with some useful data on emojis, which allows us to understand their diffusion and the importance of the issue.

⦁ 92% of the "online" population regularly uses emojis.

⦁ The number and type of emojis varies from country to country. Overall, there are more than 3,900 emojis today.

⦁ On average, 60 billion emojis are typed every day.

⦁ The most used emoji is the laughing face with tears of joy.

And now let's look at some important dates in the history of emoji.

⦁ Emojis were invented in 1998, when a famous Japanese telephone company, to distinguish itself from competitors and to allow users to more easily express their emotions and moods by message, gave shape to the first 176 emojis.

⦁ For the first few years, emojis were used only in Japan and only among telephone company users.

⦁ In 2007, Apple, realizing the potential of these icons, included them in their systems, but only for users and the market of Japan.

⦁ In 2010, the Unicode Consortium, which is responsible for establishing and defining IT standards to guarantee interoperability between platforms, standardized the first set of emojis. From that moment on, every year, the Unicode Consortium evaluates the inclusion of new emojis, becoming the international point of reference for their management.

⦁ In 2011, Apple included emojis in its systems and in every market worldwide.

⦁ In 2013, Android systems also made emojis available.

⦁ In 2015, to avoid discrimination, emojis with different skin colors were created.

White wine glass emoji: why doesn't it exist?

After having briefly introduced you to the history of emoji, let's now see the reasons for the absence of the icon of white wine and rosé wine.

The Unicode Consortium included the glass of red wine icon in the first emoji set of 2010. The major computer companies, whose representatives are members of the Unicode Consortium, chose red wine because it was considered the most popular type of wine.

In 2016, the toast emoji with sparkling wine flutes was introduced. The creation of the icons of the other types of wine, white wine and rosé wine, seemed imminent, but this was not the case!

In 2018, a Californian winery, Kendall-Jackson, submitted a 19-page report to the Unicode Consortium to propose the creation of the white wine emoji. According to the winery's representatives, given the growing popularity of white wine in the world, it would have been necessary to update the set of emojis with this new typology. The absence of the white wine icon prevented correct and fair communication. A disadvantage for those who want to advertise or communicate this type of wine.

The initiative was also supported by other wineries. It was seriously considered by the Unicode Consortium, but after careful review, the proposal was not accepted. According to the Unicode Technical Committee, adding a new color to the wine glass would have created technical difficulties for programmers. Furthermore, if the technicians had created the white wine emoji, they would have had to create emojis of every color available for other drinks, such as beer, and for every other object and animal. In this way, the number of emojis would be excessive.

In 2021, a similar request was made for rosé wine by the Consortium that protects the Italian rosé wine called Chiaretto. But, even in this case, the answer was negative!

However, the Unicode Consortium has stated that it will monitor the situation to verify whether, in the future, there will be conditions for the introduction of the new white and rosé wine emoji. At the moment, however, their absence represents a communicative obstacle to their diffusion.