Friday (7/29) morning’s Federal Register includes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to add American Single Malt Whiskey to the Standards of Identity for Distilled Spirits. The proposal follows petitions and more than 200 comments from several distillers and the American Single Malt Whiskey Commission seeking such a proposal, TTB said.
“This is great news for U.S. distillers and consumers,” said Chris Swonger, president/CEO, Dstilled Spirits Council of the U.S. “We want to thank TTB for listening to the industry’s requests and we look forward to working with the Bureau to develop an official new category for American Single Malt Whisky.
“The formal establishment of standards of identity for American Single Malt Whisky is a clear recognition that this rapidly growing category is unique and deserves to be defined and protected as a distinctive product of the United States.
“Consumer fascination with American Single Malt Whisky is at an all‐time high and establishing a clear definition will drive innovation and help maintain the integrity of this category as more products enter the market.”
TTB noted that the distillers “stated that establishment of a standard of identity would benefit consumers, as it would provide a definition for the product, establish trust in the category, clarify label declarations, and equip consumers with the necessary information to make informed decisions so they can have confidence in the products they are choosing to buy in a similar way that Scotch whisky standards provide such information to American consumer. They also believe establishment of a standard of identity would strengthen the U.S. economy by increasing tax revenue related to the sale of American Single Malt Whiskey, and by creating jobs related to producing, distributing, and selling such a product and the ingredients used in this product.”
TTB requested comments on the proposed change. It noted that any current Certificate of Label Approval that does not meet the standards proposed in the Federal Register notice would “by operation of regulation” be revoked. It said it has searched its COLA database and does not believe any existing COLA would be affected, but specifically requested comments if any label would be.
TTB added that distillers currently using the designations “malt whisky,” “American malt whisky,” “whisky distilled from malt mash,” or “American whisky distilled from malt mash” on their labels could continue to do so.
Comments due: September 27.