TTB classifies sake as a wine, for label purposes. Most wines have sulfites — but sake appears to be a notable exception. On the Shiga Sake label above, Village Wine reports that “Sakes do not contain sulfites.” TTB does not seem to disagree and has approved many such labels. Another sake importer, Vine Connections, concurs and reports that “Premium sake is gluten-free, sulfite free, and kosher.”

Every now and then, TTB approves another eau de vie. This leads to wondering if it’s the same as brandy. At long last, Tim Patterson has explained how they differ:

Unlike grape brandy, eau de vie puts the emphasis on freshness, liveliness, and capturing the intense essence of fruit — rather than on depth, weight, and the complexity that comes from years of interaction between spirit, oxygen and wood.

By way of example, here is Peak Spirits Peach Eau de Vie. And here is Clear Creek Plum Eau de Vie. Patterson explains further:

In the market for distilled spirits, dominated by slick, multi-million-dollar ad campaigns for super-premium vodkas and single malts, eau de vie is nearly invisible. If there’s something smaller than a niche market, eau de vie has it sewn up.

Yet for those who seek it out, and are persistent enough to find it, great eau de vie can be an exquisite experience.

The name translates as “water of life,” a reminder that the invention of distillation in the 17th century came in pursuit of cures for plagues like cholera.

Put another way, eau de vie is the anti-vodka. The point of vodka distillation is to remove all those annoying flavors; the point...

What do these three things have in common? All three are featured in Brad Paisley’s song, “Alcohol.” Of all the songs about alcohol beverages, this one is worth covering, because it mentions specific brands and deals directly with the interplay of alcohol and society. It also has witty lyrics. It would be even better for this blog if it dealt specifically with a legal topic, but perhaps that’s asking too much of Mr. Paisley. Here are the most pertinent lyrics:

Well I’ve been know to cause a few breakups And I’ve been known to cause a few births I can make you new friends Or get you fired from work

And since the day I left Milwaukee Lynchburg, Bordeaux France Been making the bars Lots of big money And helping white people dance … Alcohol. Alcohol

I got blamed at your wedding reception For your best man’s embarrassing speech And also for those naked pictures of you at the beach I’ve influenced kings and world leaders

I am medicine and I am poison I can help you up or make you fall

The song does a good job of putting the good and bad in perspective.

This looks like a straightforward label, but it raises some good issues. “Napa” is on the “brand (front)” label. Should it be? On the one hand, it looks to be bottled in the Napa Valley. On the other hand, the appellation is California more broadly, as per box 14 of the label approval. The label mentions Napa three times, attesting to its obvious importance as a signal of quality. Each reference to Napa tends to be accompanied by a clarifying explanation. One says it’s bottled there, two say the brand’s ownership is there. None of them (explicitly or by omission) suggest the grapes were grown there. TTB has approved quite a few labels presenting the same issues, and they may show a shift in policy, compared to five or ten years ago. It is our understanding that some wineries were blocked from highlighting Napa, regardless of the location of the bottling winery, if the grapes were from elsewhere. The same label raises one more good (but rather technical) issue. The brand name and alcohol content statement are on one piece of paper. The varietal and appellation are on another. The rules require all four items to be on the brand label. Sometimes, TTB requires all four items on the same piece of paper, sometimes in the...

Earlier this week we covered kiwi wine. Today, we go further from grape wine, toward vegetable wine. Rhubarb wine to be exact. Rhubarbinfo.com says it’s a vegetable and on this I will tentatively defer to them. Assumption Abbey Rhubarb Wine is made by Pointe of View Winery in Burlington, North Dakota. The TTB database has many rhubarb wines, and they tend to be made in states not well known for grape wine, such as Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. None of these labels tend to show an appellation of origin or a vintage date. In a good article about non-grape wine, the San Francisco Chronicle explains:

[TTB] allows fruit wine makers to add sugar, acid and water as needed – natural flavors and colors are even allowed – but they don’t allow a fruit wine to bear a vintage or place-name the way a grape wine does.

“I think it’s a waste to not allow vintage dating,” says Koehler. “You have good and bad years for fruit, just like you do for grapes.”

Those laws aren’t likely to change, if only because of the effort required by the TTB to police them. What does vintage mean to Tedeschi Vineyards when pineapple is available year-round? What does place-name mean...