legally interesting/controversial

TTB has been allowing caffeine in alcohol beverages since the day it became TTB, and ATF allowed it for decades prior. At first, it was most often found in things like coffee liqueur. Then it jumped to beer about eight years ago (with this Sparks label that seems to be the earliest beer with caffeine approval, and one of the first with directly added caffeine — in beer, wine or spirits). Well it took a while, but our favorite alkaloid has finally made the jump to wine. So far, we find at least four wines with clear evidence of caffeine. They are:

• Cafe Lue Orange Wine with Coffee
• Chang Rai Green Tea Wine
• Charbay Aperitif Wine with Tea Leaves
• P.I.N.K. Sake with Caffeine

Somehow I don’t imagine the skateboard crowd getting crazy with Charbay Aperitif Wine or P.I.N.K. Sake. A list of more than sixty approvals, for alcohol beverages with caffeine, is here.

Poor TTB. They have to make a decision about every cotton-picking label that comes down the pike. And every now and then they have to bite their tongue and affirmatively approve labels they might otherwise prefer to ignore. By contrast, FDA can simply ignore all the inconvenient labels. But for the requirement to review and approve every alcohol beverage label before it goes to market, TTB could have tried to ignore the naked lady in flagrante delicto on the Cantillon label. The State of Missouri was not amused and filed a complaint, in the late 1990s, charging that the label is obscene:  “The label for Gambrinus shows a drawing of a naked woman, with breasts visible, seated on the lap of a figure alleged to be Gambrinus, the Flemish mythological ‘king of beer.’” After a hearing, the Commissioner apparently decided the label did not violate Missouri law, and other states came to a similar conclusion. The Commissioner had the choice to ignore the label. The current federal law often leads directly to TTB affirmatively approving a motley collection of Leghumpers and Ball Busters. Somehow I doubt the drafters of the FAA Act envisioned this scenario.

TTB typically does not allow wine labels to say much about the alcohol content or strength — except in the normal alcohol by volume statement. So we were surprised that The Drunken Goat, and his n’er-do-well friend, Le Drunk Rooster, would show up on a couple of wine labels. We pretty much expected them to show up, sooner or later, on a spirits label. But not on a wine or beer label, where TTB has historically and fairly vigorously discouraged alcohol content claims. While the goat and rooster are carousing around, notable is the absence of any drunk humans out and about on approved labels. Unless you count this guy, the toothless fellow on the label for Rocky Mountain Moonshine Sippin’ Hooch. It is distilled from beets and the label suggests “Once tasted, you too will become hooked!” Box 19 surprisingly declares that “The man is no longer ‘drunk’ appearing.” If he’s sober I’d like to see the other version.