By: Brad Berkman, Esq. and Louis J. Terminello, Esq.
Virtually every wine that it makes to the shelf of a U.S. wine shop has had its label reviewed by the Alcohol and Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the U.S. Government. After a review and compliance is found, a Certificate of Label Approval is issued, commonly known by its acronym, COLA (Wines below 7% a/b/v do not need label approval, but the labels must comply with FDA requirements).
COLAs do not grant the holder any legal ownership rights but rather indicate that the wine meets all federal labeling regulations, with the ultimate goals of ensuring that labels do not contain any misleading, deceptive, or inaccurate statements and that they properly identify product identity. and contain the ubiquitous “health warning” statement a/k/a the “GOVERNMENT WARNING.” Importantly, COLA’s travel under the permittee, not by brand. This means that each producer or importer must hold the COLA under its TTB permit, regardless of whether the product was previously issued a COLA.
Label Basics
Labels must have certain required information under the law. This is referred to as “mandatory” information. All other information, absent a mandated exclusion, is generally referred to as voluntary information, which the producer may wish to include on its label.
Mandatory Information-Required Information:
The following must be placed on the label(s):
- Brand name and class/type designation.
- Alcohol content.
- Net contents statement
- Producer’s name and address.
- Government health warnings.
- Country of origin (for imports).
- Sulfite declaration (for most wines).
- Appellation of Origin
An appellation of origin is not always needed on all wine labels, but it must be stated when the following is on the label:
- A vintage date
- A varietal designation.
- A type designation of a varietal.
- A semi-generic designation.
- An “estate-bottled” claim.
It should also be noted that each piece of information be placed on the appropriate label as required by the law. Some information is placed on the back label, while other information may be on the brand label.
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