A wine label. The cover on the finished book of a wine’s life. That’s how I’ve often referred to them. In my world they are also the easiest way to explain to someone what it is that I do. Believe it or not most people’s faces gloss over when you tell them “I’m a winery compliance consultant”. When that happens I’ll then refer to wine labels, (after all everyone has seen them) and then will say “everything you see on a wine label, that’s compliance” to which they’ll nod their head and say something like “ah, I get it”.

For winery staff that are tasked with preparing or submitting labels for TTB approval (COLAs!) there are two very helpful resources available as guidance. The first of these is a TTB document, one of what they call their “beverage alcohol manuals”, or BAM. They have three of these, one for each of the beverage groups (spirits, beer and wine) but the BAM for wine had been MIA for several years. It has been available again for a few years now.  This manual is a great resource for anyone who either needs to understand, or is just interested in learning what all the wine label requirements are. I used this manual as part of my class at Napa Valley College for many years.  Here’s a link to access it

The second helpful resource covering a lot of the same TTB regulations is my book, The Inside Story of a Wine Label. I wrote this book in 2012 to share my knowledge of what goes into designing & submitting wine labels for TTB approval from my years of being involved in doing just that as compliance manager at wineries. The book is a great compliment to combine with the TTB BAM manual for wine for winery staff that manage submitting label approvals (COLAs!) to the TTB. It is also a great reference for the curious consumer.

These two helpful wine label resources are the topic of my next video:

TTB wine label requirements resources