wine

We find no FUBAR approvals to date, but here we have WTF ale from Lagunitas, and SNAFU wine from Cartlidge & Browne. Both make liberal use of military slang. Lagunitas does so to express their dismay and confusion about the current state of world affairs. Tango and Foxtrot are well established as the military alphabet codes for T and F. Wilco famously used these codes on a 2002 album, but Whiskey, rather than Wilco, is the correct code for W. Perhaps the Petaluma, California brewer believed TTB would not allow the term “whiskey” on a malt beverage label. Or perhaps they are big Wilco fans. Or perhaps they are just very confused, further to the freewheeling text on the label (tieing in Bush v. Gore, adult videos, and imbibilisciousness). SNAFU, apart from the acronym, is California red wine bottled by Cartlidge & Browne in American Canyon, California. It claims to be the first wine to provide tasting notes via text message.

Back in the 1970s ATF/TTB worked vigorously to control wine-labeling, where FDA wanted to get involved and insist upon detailed ingredient lists, as is common on most other food labels. The matter got resolved by way of Brown-Forman Distillers Corp. v. Mathews, 435 F. Supp. 5 (W.D. Ky. 1976). But this did not stop Bonny Doon Winery. Many of Bonny Doon’s labels include quite detailed ingredient labeling, and Bonny Doon has been one of few alcohol beverage companies willing to swim against the tide and volunteer this information. Bonny Doon’s Cunning label shows the following ingredients:  grapes, tartaric acid and sulfur dioxide. It goes on to say the product was made with cultured yeast, yeast nutrients, French oak chips, and French oak barrels. According to Decanter, Bonny Doon president Randall Grahm said:

It’s useful to provide more detailed information about the ingredients used in wine production and reduce our dependence on standard wine additions, even those considered to be benign such as tartaric acid, bentonite, yeast nutrients, enzymes, sulphur dioxide.

Let us know if you see other TTB labels with detailed ingredient labeling.

Tensley Wine is not happy with the way things are going in Washington. They claim it took more than a year to get approval on the wine label above. It is no wonder, and it is some credit that our government would approve it at all. Then again, it’s not entirely clear that the label is “approved.” Box 18c shows that it is an exemption from label approval, rather than a box 18a label approval. Either way, I am pretty sure President Obama (among others in Washington) has a thick skin and can deal with it. It is clear that Tensley is annoyed, but it’s less clear what Tensley is annoyed about. There is some griping about the local bureaucracy, and a lot of griping that federal taxes are too high for some people and too low for others. The front label notes that the wine has 1% more alcohol than table wine, but is taxed at a rate 235% higher.