Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In response to industry member requests, we are extending the comment period for Notice No. 78, Proposed Revision of American Viticultural Area Regulations, a notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on November 20, 2007, for an additional 60 days.

This Treasury decision adopts as a final rule, without change, a temporary rule that allows manufacturers of tobacco products and cigarette papers and tubes to remove these articles without payment of tax for use by Federal agencies in law enforcement activities, and without inclusion of the otherwise required tax-exempt label.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau proposes to establish the 13.4 square mile ``Leona Valley'' viticultural area in the northeast part of Los Angeles 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.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to amend its regulations concerning the establishment of American viticultural areas (AVAs). The proposed changes address the effect that the approval of an AVA may have on established brand names. In addition, the proposed changes provide clearer regulatory standards for the establishment of AVAs within AVAs. The proposed amendments also clarify the rules for preparing, submitting, and processing viticultural area petitions. Finally, we propose to add to the regulations statements regarding the viticultural significance of established viticultural area names, or key portions of those names, for wine labeling purposes.

In response to an industry member request, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau extends the comment period for Notice No. 73, Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages, a notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on July 31, 2007, for an additional 90 days.

In this notice, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to amend its regulations regarding the mandatory labeling requirements for alcoholic beverages. The proposed regulatory changes would permit alcohol content to appear on other labels affixed to the container rather than on the brand label as currently required. These regulatory changes will provide greater flexibility in alcoholic beverage labeling, and will conform the TTB wine labeling regulations to the recent agreement reached by members of the World Wine Trade Group regarding the presentation of certain information on wine labels.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau is adopting as a final rule, with minor technical changes, temporary regulations that revised the list of materials authorized for the treatment of wine and juice and the list of processes authorized for the treatment of wine, juice, and distilling material. The regulatory amendments involved the addition of new materials and processes and changes to the limitations on the use of certain approved materials.

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) proposes to amend its regulations to require a statement of alcohol content, expressed as a percentage of alcohol by volume, on all alcohol beverage products. This statement may appear on any label affixed to the container. TTB also proposes to require a Serving Facts panel on alcohol beverage labels, which would include a statement of calories, carbohydrates, fat, and protein. Industry members may also choose to disclose on the Serving Facts panel the number of U.S. fluid ounces of pure alcohol (ethyl alcohol) per serving as part of a statement that includes alcohol content expressed as a percentage of alcohol by volume. The proposed regulations would also specify new reference serving sizes for wine, distilled spirits, and malt beverages based on the amount of beverage customarily consumed as a single serving. However, TTB is not defining a standard drink in this document. TTB proposes to make these new requirements mandatory three years after the date of publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. The agency proposes these amendments to ensure that alcohol beverage labels provide consumers with adequate information about the product.

As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we invite comments on the proposed or continuing information collections listed below in this notice.

In response to a request from a viticulture industry group, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau extends the comment period for Notice No. 71, Proposed Establishment of the Paso Robles Westside Viticultural Area, a notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2007, for an additional 30 days.

This Treasury decision establishes the Outer Coastal Plain viticultural area in southeastern New Jersey. The viticultural area consists of approximately 2,255,400 acres and includes all of Cumberland, Cape May, Atlantic, and Ocean Counties and portions of Salem, Gloucester, Camden, Burlington, and Monmouth Counties. We designate viticultural areas to allow bottlers to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify the wines they may purchase.

As part of our continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, and as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, we invite comments on the proposed or continuing information collections listed below in this notice.