Guess what US winemaking world? Our friends at the TTB are now working on weekends! This applies specifically to the always popular area of wine label approvals, otherwise known as COLAs. How do I know this? Fairly frequently I’ll receive either an approved COLA application or a request for correction on a weekend day. If I then respond back to that request for correction on that weekend day I almost always will then get the approved COLA sent back to me that same day.

The TTB I am sure has been hearing plenty for awhile now about their overall response times and apparently they are listening. (Or at least making the appearance of listening) Along those lines they just sent out a link to their most recent “Customer Satisfaction” survey, in which part of it contains several questions specific to how long we think an “acceptable” approval timeline  is for everything from original permit applications, amended permit applications and label approvals. 

As a regular submitter of new permit applications for several years now I’ve been more than frustrated since starting late last year the approval timelines went up by at least 2 months or longer. Word to the wise: Know what the current approval timelines are for your type of application and Keep in Touch with TTB staff when your application is around 30 days out from the end of the current processing time. By keep in touch I mean actually calling the TTB Cincinnati offices and finding out the name, phone extension and email of the TTB specialist handling your application. The TTB office number is 855-882-7665.

By the way if you didn’t receive a link to the TTB’s 2016 Customer satisfaction survey and you’d really like the opportunity to share your feedback and comments with them you will want to opt in to their email newsletter. You can do that by going to this link and then clicking on “Get Email updates” located right below the Wine Industry banner.