Among wine labeling practices Alcohol & Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau considers deceptive is labeling wines to indicate they contain distilled spirits. It also considers advertisements making such a statement to be deceptive.
Now, TTB is proposing eliminating the advertising and labeling provisions which date to the 1930s after Repeal of Prohibition. They were originally adopted likely as a measure to prevent winemakers from misrepresenting to consumers that their wine contained or was comparable to distilled spirits, TTB said. In the one exception to this prohibition, if a statement of composition is required to appear as the designation of a product not defined in part 4, the statement of composition may include a reference to the type of distilled spirits that has been added to the wine.
Sweet & Fortified Wine Association, a wine industry trade group, submitted a petition to TTB requesting that the regulations be revised to allow dessert grape wines to be labeled with the words “fortified” and/or “grape (wine) spirits added.” These industry members produce wines that are typically standard grape wines in the style of port, sherry, madeira, or other types of dessert wine which contain added brandy or other distilled spirits. However, current regulations prohibits statements on standard wines ( i.e. wines which meet a class and type designation) which indicate that the wine contains distilled spirits.
The association argues that the prohibition on use of “fortified’ when it comes to wine is archaic, and after review, TTB says it agrees. Under the proposed regulation, wines that do meet a standard of identity could also be labeled with truthful references to added distilled spirits. Thus, for example, a product that meets the standard of identity for grape dessert wine in § 4.21(a) may be labeled with a statement of composition such as “Grape wine with added brandy.” The proposed regulations would apply to any wine that contains added distilled spirits, and not just to dessert grape wines as proposed by the petitioner. The proposed regulation would also allow the use of “fortified’ as part of a statement of composition, such as “Grape wine fortified with brandy.”
The proposed regulation also would prohibit only statements that would be false or misleading, such as a statement that the wine contained distilled spirits when it did not.
Comment are due by August 12, 2022.
