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Legislation and Regulation

A collection of 55 issues

The TTB's new AVA rules: a well-meaning step in the wrong direction

I was surprised with how quickly the TTB published new draft rules to resolve the issues surrounding the approval of new AVAs that might conflict with existing brand names, or that are nested within other existing AVAs. [I wrote about this a few weeks back at some length.] A first

The TTB's Reevaluation of its AVA Approval Process: a Retreat from the "Common Good"?

[Editor's Note: with the publication in late November of the TTB's proposed new rules for AVA approval, the questions under debate have been clarified. I have posted an updated analysis of the new rules, as well as a discussion of some of the responses of local

Direct Shipping to Florida - A New Challenge

Wineries' privileges to ship to Florida are under attack. As is happening in many states, the distributors' lobby has been working to reduce or eliminate the abilities of out-of-state wineries to ship directly to consumers, and there have been recent developments consumers in Florida - or wineries who

Direct Shipping of Wine: The Supreme Court's Granholm v. Heald Case Explained

[Ed note, July 2008: I recently wrote an update analyzing the ongoing impacts of the Granholm v Heald decision on wineries that readers of this post might find interesting.] With the issues surrounding wine direct shipping becoming more complicated (check out Free the Grapes or ShipCompliant's excellent blog)

The significance of "Estate Bottled"

My dad recently met with a marketing guru and spent some time talking about what makes Tablas Creek special. We sat down after his conversation, and went through the usual suspects: Rhone specialist, organic vineyard, grapevines from Beaucastel, etc. One thing that we both agreed was of great importance, but