Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to an industry member request, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau extends the comment period for Notice No. 34, Proposed Fort Ross-Seaview Viticultural Area, a notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on March 8, 2005, for an additional 30 days.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) requests public comment on possible changes to the labeling and advertising requirements of alcohol beverage products regulated by TTB. The agency has long required certain labeling, such as brand name, class and type, alcohol content (in the case of wines containing more than 14 percent alcohol by volume and distilled spirits), net contents, and in recent years has published updated standards for the use of carbohydrate and calorie claims. Because of petitions to mandate additional information, including ingredient, allergen, alcohol, calorie, and carbohydrate content and requests by some to use labels with at least some of that additional information on a voluntary basis under existing rules, TTB believes it is now appropriate to consider revising the alcohol beverage labeling and advertising regulations, and seeks public comment on several issues to assist the agency in formulating specific regulatory proposals.

The Department of the Treasury and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau adopt a temporary amendment to the regulations relating to the removal of tobacco products and cigarette papers and tubes, without payment of tax, for use of the United States. This amendment allows manufacturers of tobacco products and cigarette papers and tubes to remove these articles without payment of tax for use by Federal agencies in their law enforcement activities, and to exempt packages of those removed products from the tax-exempt labeling requirement. We take this action to timely meet the needs of Federal agency law enforcement operations, particularly investigations involving tobacco product diversion and smuggling.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the Shawnee Hills viticultural area in southern Illinois. This proposed 1,268,960-acre viticultural area is approximately 80 miles long east to west and approximately 20 miles wide from north to south. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the ``Dos Rios'' viticultural area in Mendocino County, California. This proposed 15,500-acre viticultural area is about 150 miles north of San Francisco, California. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

The Department of the Treasury, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the public and other Federal agencies to comment on proposed and continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.). Currently, we are seeking comments on the TTB Questionnaire titled ``Methanol Levels & Good Manufacturing Practices for Fruit Brandies.''

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the 27,500-acre Fort Ross-Seaview viticultural area in western Sonoma County, California. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, we invite comments on the proposed or continuing information collections listed below in this notice.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the 38,000-acre ``Covelo'' viticultural area in Mendocino County, California, about 150 miles north of San Francisco. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has received a petition proposing the expansion of the existing Russian River Valley viticultural area in Sonoma County, California. The proposed 30,200- acre expansion would increase the size of this viticultural area to 126,200 acres. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed amendment to our regulations.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the ``High Valley'' viticultural area in Lake County, California. Located above the eastern shore of Clear Lake near the town of Clearlake Oaks, the proposed 14,000-acre area is about 85 miles north of San Francisco, and is largely within the established Clear Lake and North Coast viticultural areas. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase. We invite comments on this proposed addition to our regulations.

This Treasury decision establishes the McMinnville viticultural area in Yamhill County, Oregon. The new McMinnville viticultural area is entirely within the existing Willamette Valley viticultural area. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.

The Department of the Treasury and its Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau adopt as a final rule certain proposed changes to the regulations concerning the production, taxation, composition, labeling, and advertising of beer and malt beverages. This final rule permits the addition of flavors and other nonbeverage materials containing alcohol to beers and malt beverages, but, in general, limits the alcohol contribution from such flavors and other nonbeverage materials to not more than 49% of the alcohol content of the product. However, if a malt beverage contains more than 6% alcohol by volume, not more than 1.5% of the volume of the finished product may consist of alcohol derived from flavors and other nonbeverage ingredients that contain alcohol. This final rule also amends the regulations relating to the labeling and advertising of malt beverages, and adopts a formula requirement for beers. We issue this final rule to clarify the status of flavored malt beverages under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and the Federal Alcohol Administration Act related to the production, composition, taxation, labeling, and advertising of alcohol beverages. This final rule also will ensure that consumers are adequately informed about the identity of flavored malt beverages.