*This is a recycled post from October of 2022. The message is relevant once again, as US wineries are experiencing “produced by fermentation” right now as they complete their ongoing 2023 fermentations! 

Produced and Production. Two words often used by the media when they are referencing a winery’s activities. Interestingly enough, when either of those terms are used by the media, for example they will mention the “production” of a winery or how much a winery “produced” in a year. In both of these examples what they are actually referring to is how much that winery bottled or how much they sold.

In direct contrast to that in the winery compliance world we have the phrase, “produced by fermentation”. This is actually a TTB (Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau) defined phrase which comes directly from the report all US wineries file, the Report of Wine Premise Operations, also known by its form number, 5120.17.

Produced by fermentation is the title of line 2 on the 5120.17 report. Just as those three words suggest, wineries report gallons on that line when their wines “graduate” from the fermentation stage of their lives to officially becoming wine. As someone who’s been in the compliance world of the wine biz for 25 years, whenever I see the word production, I immediately think about wines that have just finished fermentation and more specifically the perks available to US wineries from listing gallons on that line of the TTB report. 

Wineries are required to report these gallons per TTB regulations, but beyond that requirement, there are benefits for wineries to have gallons on that report line. There are two areas where wineries can benefit. One is a potentially significant financial benefit and the other is a commonly desired term to list on their labels.

Take a look at the video here to see what those two appealing benefits are.