All wines that are bottled by wineries to be sold for consumption are required to have a federal label approval. The industry term for this is certificate of label approval, or COLA. Of the three alcoholic beverage categories (Beer, Wine and spirits) the number of applications for label approval received by the federal regulating agency, the TTB from the wine industry makes up over 80% of the total. Add to this scenario the current government budget issues which have resulted in staff cuts and retirements at the TTB and the end result is label approval processing time has gone up. Many in the industry had become accustomed to their label approval turn around time lasting about 10 working days. (This is for those using the TTB’s electronic filing system, COLAs Online) That time frame now has now gone up to 38 Days!

What does this mean for wineries? They now need to re-adjust their planning schedules when coming up on bottling time. They now need to factor in a weeks longer time frame for label approval coming back BEFORE they are on their printer’s schedule to have the labels printed. The classic label printing scenario I have both seen and heard about many times is that labels are designed and printed BEFORE a label approval application has been submitted for them! Not good planning! Why not? Because in some cases the label approval came back denied which meant the winery had to have the labels reprinted and eat the expense of the first batch.

A best practice suggestion for wineries coming up on their bottling season now would be to follow these steps:

1. 3 months out from the bottling date the label design and details should be decided.
2. Once this is finished the completed label proofs are given to the person responsible for submitting the label approval applications. They look them over for all required items and details and submit.
3. In 2 to 6 weeks time the approval (hopefully) comes back.
4. The go ahead can be given to the printer to process.

I realize after my years working in the industry that this post may be a very entertaining one especially for those actually responsible for filing label approvals. It is still all too common that planning ahead for this part of the winemaking process does not take place like it should. That is, label approval is often almost an after thought in the label design and printing process. It is only a matter of getting into the habit of planning for it though and once that is the case wineries stand to benefit financially and in their staff’s morale. (No more stressing them out by printing labels before label approval!) I also highly recommend using the TTB’s COLAs online system for submitting label approvals even though the turn around time has slowed down from its earlier days it still is much faster than filing on paper AND it has a higher “success” rate due to the fact that there is somewhat less room for error. For more information on COLAs online here is the TTB’s link:

http://www.ttb.gov/faqs/colasonline.shtml#AboutColas

I placed calls to two sources at the TTB to get an answer. The most clear and helpful answer came from Mari Kirrane, the TTB wine specialist who is on the receiving end of a lot of my random TTB questions. The answer? Yes- any wine that is filled into 5 gallon kegs (or bottles, bags, jugs or other containers for that matter which will eventually be given to a consumer) must have a label approval for it.

I think what had initially thrown me off was the different concept of the wine not being "bottled" in the traditional sense, but instead being filled into a much larger container, in this case a stainless steel keg. So a line of these kegs isn't being loaded onto a conveyor belt on a bottling line. Instead the wine is filled into the kegs one by one in a more hands on process. 

But nonetheless though it may not be a traditional bottling activity it is the finished product being packaged up to go out to the consumer, so after the kegs are filled with wine a label must also be attached. This can mean that the labels for your kegs are done by a printing business or you also have a lower cost option of just printing them out via your own computer and use tape to apply them securely onto the kegs.

Next I had to request some changes to my client's label. The first change was of course for the capacity of the larger container. You actually can't list "5 Gallons" on a wine label. In this case, the TTB only accepts capacity amounts in whole liter statements. For the required net contents on a 5 gallon keg label it would need to state "19L".

The second required label item change is related to the name & address statement. This statement we are commonly used to viewing as something like, "produced and bottled by…….". The TTB requirements state that for wines that are filled into containers that are larger than 4 liters "bottled" changes to "packed". So my client's label needed to state, "produced and packed by….".

The edits were made to the wine label and the label approval was submitted.

Chalk down something else new learned in the world of TTB compliance.

I'll start off with the year end wrap up summary as far as TTB compliance. 2012 was a year where wineries continued to be given ways to avoid the TTB, so to speak. The updated allowable changes to wine labels came along in July which brought us a much broader range of common label changes than had ever been allowed before that do NOT require a new label approval submission. For more on this here's a link w/full details:  http://www.ttb.gov/labeling/allowable_revisions.shtml

The TTB also revamped its website in August this year, giving it a more "user friendly" look in part I'm sure designed to make commonly requested information easier to locate, thus attempting to cut down on phone calls or emails sent to them that continue to ask for the same sorts of information. I give the TTB a thumbs up for the website re-do, especially as someone who has watched it evolve over the past 15 years. I still find it to be one of the easiest government websites to navigate. (That's saying a lot!) If you haven't already seen it go take a look: http://www.ttb.gov/wine/index.shtml

The other government agency, the FDA also came back on our radar in 2012. The required registration of food facilities (which wineries are part of in their eyes) once started out as a one time registration. Then in 2012 the FDA changed that required registration to every two years. Now all wineries must have submitted their first of these registrations by December 31st. For more info on that here's a link: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FSMA/ucm314178.htm

2013: Your compliance looking forward

What can you expect in the way of TTB updates in 2013? Here again I think you can continue to expect to see them offer new ways of "avoiding" us.

One of those ways is via their now about 2 year old electronic filing system, Permits Online. This system for submitting permit applications and amendments has to date only been available for brand new permit filers but they continue to list on their website that it will soon be opened up to pre 2011 permit holders.

This will mean that all existing TTB bonded wineries (& other TTB permit holders) would be able to use this online system to make updates to their TTB permits that they currently have to go the snail mail, paper copy route. One of the major advantages I see to this system is that it sets up all of your TTB permit information easily accessible in one place- where you know that you & the TTB are on the same page. Here's a link to their site for it if you haven't seen it yet: http://www.ttb.gov/ponl/permits-online.shtml

One last suggestion I'll offer you for getting off on the right foot with your 2013 compliance is to sign up for my upcoming free teleseminar, Guidance, Support & Ease with your Winemaking Compliance".  

I'll be covering topics related to your ongoing day to day TTB compliance, and ways to simplify it so it takes you less time and much less hassle. What better way to start off your winemaking year?

Here's a link to find out full details:  http://winecompliancealliance.com/home/free-teleseminar-guidance-support-ease-for-your-winemaking-compliance