Sparkling wine has been around a long time. Drew Lambert says the English invented it back in the 1600s, before the French. Beer got its fizz around the same time.
It took another 400 years for spirits to acquire a fizz, and now sparkling spirits are here with a vengeance. Nuvo was early, first approved on December 11, 2006. It is a sparkling liqueur made with vodka, sparkling wine and fruit nectar, in France. Three days earlier, TTB approved O2 Sparkling Vodka. It’s currently made in England and imported by Admiral. Topless is a third example of this trend. It is vodka with natural flavors and CO2 added. Topless is made in Holland and imported by Drinks Americas of Wilton, Connecticut.
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Champagne Battle Spills into Time Magazine
We never thought we’d see a TTB controversy make it into a big ad in the national media — let alone a full page ad in Time Magazine. The yellow ad is on page 69 of the December 29, 2008 “Person of the Year” double issue and it covers the entire page.
The French Office of Champagne is not at all pleased that some non-French wines qualify to be called Champagne, under US law. The ad says “Masquerading as Champagne … isn’t fair. … A legal loophole allows” some names to be misused.
In 2006, after many years of negotiations between the US and the European Union, and agreement, TTB set forth the current US rule in TTB Industry Circular 2006-1:
the U.S. made a commitment to seek to change the legal status of [terms like Champagne] to restrict their use solely to wines originating in the applicable EU member state, with certain exceptions. Because the IRC specifically defines semi-generic names, this law must be changed in order to restrict the usage of the names to wines originating in the EU. Assuming the law is so changed, the Agreement contains an exception to this rule. We refer to this exception as the “grandfather” provision. Under the “grandfather” provision, any person or his or her successor in interest may continue to use a semi-generic name or Retsina on a label of a wine not originating in the EU, provided the semi-generic name or Retsina is only used on labels for wine bearing the same brand name, or the brand name and the fanciful name, if any, that appear on a COLA that was issued prior to March 10, 2006.
E. & J. Gallo appears to have been very deft in navigating this elaborate path, to preserving the term Champagne on its top-selling brands such as Barefoot (above), Tott’s, Andre, and Ballatore. Box 19 of the Barefoot COLA shows that TTB grandfathered this brand.
WineAmerica Comment; Top 7 Things to Know
It is likely that all beer, wine and spirits labels will change dramatically in the near future. TTB has been working on new rules since CSPI and other groups submitted a petition in 2003. The new rules would require a “Serving Facts” panel on every container. This panel would include a lot more information, such as the typical serving size, number of servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Because this is a big, controversial change, TTB has received more than 18,000 public comments during the past few years. There are far too many comments for most people to review, and so we will highlight and summarize the most noteworthy comments here. The most recent proposal and comments are here. This is comment 4 in a series; to see others, click on the “serving facts” tag below.
- WineAmerica said “This rulemaking could lead to one of the most far-reaching revisions of wine label requirements … in the history of wine in America.”
- Most common wines “fit into a very narrow band of calorie content per serving, about 120 calories” and this information is easy to find on the Internet. The rule could cause “information overload” and would provide “very little, if any benefit” to consumers.
- These changes would have “very negative economic effects” on more than 5,000 wineries in this country.
- Wine is more like fresh produce than manufactured food. It varies from year to year, lot to lot. Also, it is not consumed primarily for nutritional purposes.
- 98% of the nation’s more than 5,000 wineries are small businesses.
- It will cost these wineries about $2,000-$5,000 to redesign each label. The costs include at least $250 per sample for nutrient analysis. It will take about 2-4 weeks of waiting time per lab analysis.
- If TTB moves forward, TTB should allow the smaller, linear format.
Is WineAmerica right?
George Washington's Tavern Porter
TTB does not usually allow presidents to be shown on alcohol beverage labels, so we were suprised to see George Washington (above) and Thomas Jefferson emblazoned upon these beers. The normal rationale is that it could misleadingly imply that the president endorsed the product. Here, the porter neck label says “Crafted following General Washington’s original recipe.” We see very few Obama beers so far, and we wonder how many TTB should allow — if any. What presidential beers do you think the government should allow?
American Medical Association Comment; Top 7 Things to Know
It is likely that all beer, wine and spirits labels will change dramatically in the near future. TTB has been working on new rules since CSPI and other groups submitted a petition in 2003. The new rules would require a “Serving Facts” panel on every container. This panel would include a lot more information, such as the typical serving size, number of servings per container, calories, carbohydrates, protein and fat. Because this is a big, controversial change, TTB has received more than 18,000 public comments during the past few years. There are far too many comments for most people to review, and so we will highlight and summarize the most noteworthy comments here. The most recent proposal and comments are here. This is comment 3 in a series; to see others, click on the “serving facts” tag below.
- The AMA believes “The public desires and deserves accurate information on ingredients and potential allergens in alcoholic beverages.”
- “Consumers are confused about the type and amount of alcohol” in newer products such as wine coolers, “alcopops,” and “high malt content beer products with names and packaging deceptively similar to those of same-brand distilled spirits.”
- Roughly half of all alcoholic beverages are consumed by persons with alcohol use disorders.
- “Serving Facts” should appear in a consistent manner across all labels, all containers including kegs, and even all ads.
- All labels and ads should disclose all ingredients (such as caffeine, additives, preservatives).
- The Serving Facts panel should show alcohol based on grams of ethanol, and “proof” should be phased out.
- Labels and ads should show a “standard drink” (equal to about 14 grams or 0.6 fluid ounces of pure alcohol). They should also show the number of servings per container in fluid ounces of pure alcohol. This should be done with a “consistent graphic symbol.”
Citrus Wine: Grapefruit and Lemon
One of our favorite themes is that alcohol beverages can be made from just about anything lying around the kitchen, and the TTB approvals tend to bear this out. Although the overwhelming majority of wines are made from all manner of grapes, a massive quantity of wine is also made from various types of citrus. Orange wines are common. Above is a grapefruit wine vinted and bottled by Revolution Wines of Sacramento, CA. A second example is Bullfrog Lemon Table Wine, produced and bottled by Jules J. Berta Vineyards of Albertville, AL. These wines do not bear a vintage date and TTB does not allow vintage dates on other than grape wines.