NOW ONLY 85% OF VINTAGE WINE MUST COME FROM VINTAGE YEAR GRAPES

It’s now easier than ever for wine blends to earn a vintage label. In a ruling published in the Federal Register Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury’s Department Tax and Trade Bureau will allow 1/6 of a wine to come from a year other than the vintage year written on the label. In other words, 85% of a vintage-dated wine must come from vintage-year grapes, giving “greater flexibility” to winemakers and making U.S. wine more consistent. Current rules for vintage dating were drafted in 1972 and require 95% of a vintage-dated wine to have come from grapes harvested in the year shown on the label. This put the U.S. at a disadvantage since foreign wine-producers did not go by the same regulation.


However, the agreement does not apply to all wineries. Federal wine regulators agreed to somewhat relax the rules surrounding vintage dating of wine with state and county appellations, but the same does not hold true for smaller American Viticultural Areas. The new rule will apply to wine-growing counties such as Napa, Sonoma and Santa Barbara and for wines that only have a state appellation designation such as California or Washington. Large California wine producers, such as E & J Gallo and The Wine Group, favor the agreement while growers and premium producers like Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates do not.