Your Rose' May Be Late this Year: Wine and the Government Shutdown

Benovia winery in the Russian River Valley was planning to label and release its first Blanc de Noirs sparkling wine this spring, but the partial government shutdown has put those plans on hold. Due to the lapse in funding, the government agency responsible for approving Benovia's wine labels, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), has shut its doors and suspended its approval process for new alcoholic beverages, leaving the winery in a bind.

"Until you have label approval they won't let you label and ship the wine," Benovia co-owner and winemaker Mike Sullivan told Wine Spectator. "It's sort of in limbo until the government opens up."

Similar stories are playing out across the country as wineries and breweries feel the sting of the shutdown. Without label approval, some winemakers may have to wait to bottle their wines currently sitting in tanks and barrels. Those delays could eventually mean financial consequences for winemakers and fewer choices for consumers on store shelves.

Spring releases are in limbo

During the shutdown, wineries may continue to send their labels to the TTB, but the labels won't be approved, a process that normally takes up to 36 days. That's creating headaches for winemakers since they are required to submit new labels, as well as existing labels that have been changed, to the TTB for a Certificate of Label Approval (COLA), in order to sell their wines.

Last year the TTB, which enforces laws regulating alcohol production, importation and distribution, processed more than 192,000 labels.

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