Wholesalers Ignore Small Wineries, Again

By Cary M. Greene

Last week, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association (“WSWA”) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (“NBWA”) published a pair of opinion pieces in The Hill, "The Right Approach to Alchohol Policy, and Huffington Post, "Nobody's Coming to Stop Your Wine Shipment... or Mine Either!".  In defending the indefensible H.R. 1161, the associations accused the “opposition,” which includes WineAmerica, of being composed of:

…a syndicate of foreign-owned distillers and brewers, wine conglomerates, and unaccountable online alcohol sellers.

Apparently, this nefarious “syndicate”:

…use[s]…the courts in attempt to pad their pockets at the expense of responsible regulation that the CARE Act would address.

If it wasn’t obvious that H.R. 1161 was without substance before, "An Update on the CARE Act", the deliberate cheap shots against our industry partners should end all speculation.  But apart from the attacks, the deliberate exclusion from the policy debate of the many thousands of small family producers throughout the United States—who, incidentally, would be directly harmed by the CARE Act—speaks loudest above the din of wholesaler bombast.

It’s not bad enough that wholesalers dismiss small brands and producers in the marketplace—as is widely understood, the dynamic growth of the wine industry over the past three decades has been driven mostly by direct sales to consumers and self-distribution—now, wholesalers are trying to deliberately exclude us in the policy forum as well.

Unfortunately for NBWA and WSWA, WineAmerica and its partners will continue fighting this harmful bill, and telling the truth about what it does and who it benefits: "What Scholars Have to Say About the CARE Bill".

The 2011 Wine and Grape Policy Conference

By Michael Kaiser

Last week WineAmerica and the Winegrape Growers of America (WGA) held the annual Wine and Grape Policy Conference at the Phoenix Park Hotel here in Washington, DC.  The annual conference allows the Board of Directors for both organizations a chance to meet, as well as for joint policy meetings.  This year we had industry members from 16 states in attendance.  

The Conference started on Sunday, May 8 with a meeting of the Executive Committee of the WineAmerica Board of Directors.  WGA also had a short Board Meeting.  The evening concluded with an informal wine reception.  This year the Conference had a specific focus on wines from Idaho.  WineAmerica will be holding its Fall Board Meeting in Boise this November. 

On Monday, May 9 a joint policy session was held.  The major topics of discussion this year were the CARE Act, the upcoming re-authorization of the Farm Bill, immigration reform, and excise taxes.  The joint policy meeting featured a presentation from Peter Cressy, the president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.  The policy meeting also featured a panel discussion on agriculture issues featuring Robert Guenther of United Fresh, Jennifer Montgomery of WineAmerica, Jean-Mari Peltier of the National Grape and Wine Initiative, and Craig Regelbrugge of the American Nursery and Landscape Association.  After a joint lunch the group headed to meetings at the United States Department of Agriculture.

Tuesday, May 10 started with concurrent WineAmerica and WGA Board Meetings.  The WineAmerica Board Meeting focused on how to increase membership within the organization and all of the hard work the staff has been doing over the past year.  The afternoon featured meetings with Members of Congress and their staffs.  The congressional meetings are essential for our industry to present concerns and ideas to their elected representatives.  At the core of the discussion this year with Congress is the industry's opposition to HR 1161, or the CARE Act.  Tuesday wrapped up with the annual Taste the Wines of America wine reception.  This year we featured wine from 24 different states. 

After a breakfast speech from Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) the State Associations Council met.  The SAC is a great resource for sharing ideas and to update what is going on in each state.  The SAC meeting marked the end of the 2011 Wine and Grape Policy Conference.  Overall, it was a very successful conference we are looking forward to the WineAmerica Board Meeting in Boise, Idaho this November. 

TTB Clarifies its February 2 Release Suspending Expedite Requests and Informal Review of COLAs

On Friday, April 29, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) issued a clarification on their February 2, 2011 notice suspending "expedite requests" and informal review of alcohol beverage labels.  As members of the industry are well aware, the processing time for Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) submissions has been drastically increased in recent months.  This delays in processing times are correlated to increased COLA submissions due to industry growth and dwindling of TTB resources.  According to their April 29 statement:

Expedited requests require more resources to process because TTB must spend time to determine whether each specific request meets the grounds for expedited treatment, rather than simply the time spent to evaluate and process the label application.  While our regulations generally establish a 90-day timeframe within which TTB may process an application, you may be assured we will work hard to perform our review more quickly than that.  However, we remind applicants that they should allow adequate time in planning for a label approval to account for the processing timeframe that the regulations provide, particularly since revisions to labels or formulas may be necessary and may cause delays that are not within TTB’s control.  

After TTB announced its policy on the discontinuance of expedited and informal reviews on February 2nd, we received several inquiries that, while expressing an understanding of the rationale underlying the policy, asked for a phase-in of the policy.  Consequently, we wish to clarify that a phase-in policy is not necessary since requests that demonstrate good cause for expedited processing, such as requests presenting circumstances that are or were not reasonably within the applicant’s control or ones which could not have been anticipated and planned for in advance through appropriate internal controls and procedures, may be processed in an accelerated manner.  For purposes of fairness to the entire industry, and in order to address the backlog that TTB currently faces, we will consider this standard very narrowly.  You may direct any written request (with full details on why good cause is present) for an expedited review to TTB’s Advertising, Labeling and Formulation Division (ALFD) for evaluation.  Informal label review, however, will not be conducted under any circumstances.  

The TTB will now allow a very small number of "expedite requests" as long as the applicant illustrates a scenario with their submission that was not within their control or could not have been anticipated of planned.  This will be reviewed on a case by case basis and will only be allowed under the most narrow of circumstances.  If you have any questions regarding this, please contact Michael Kaiser at WineAmerica.