The following press release was sent to various Washington Media outlets this past week. We are further pleased to announce that Representative Sharon Wylie of Vancouver has agreed to be prime sponsor of this bill in the state House of Representatives.
Please link this post to social media and forward it to any of your many customers that will be excited to see wine growlers come to the wider Washington market.
Your FWWS Board
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
PROPOSED BILL WOULD ALLOW WINE SALES IN GROWLERS
(Olympia, WA December 11th, 2013)
If a proposal by the advocacy group Family Wineries of
Washington State becomes law next year consumers would be able to fill customer
owned containers, or “growlers,” with
wine anywhere in Washington that beer can presently be sold in that format.
“It’s high time that Washington consumers were able to use
this wildly popular and environmentally friendly concept.” said Paul Beveridge,
winemaker and President of the group, adding that “Studies have shown that
roughly sixty five percent of a winery’s carbon footprint is due to the glass
packaging.”
In addition to specialty beer and wine shops, taverns and
restaurants, refilling wine in growlers would also be allowed at winery
“additional tasting rooms” of the type that many Eastern Washington wineries
now operate in Woodinville. Beer sales would also be allowed in such tasting
rooms as well as beer growler sales.
Similarly breweries and microbreweries would be allowed to sell wine in
order that they might be added to the list of places that wine in growlers could
be purchased.
Beveridge noted that consumers in Europe have purchased wine
this way for decades and that consumers in some other states are gaining the
same privilege. “Just this year the Oregon Legislature unanimously passed a
similar bill which Governor Kitzhaber signed into law” said Beveridge.
Under the Washington State Liquor Control Board’s interpretation
of state law, a change would be required to create a specific allowance for
selling wine in refillable growlers. In
order to effect that change, Family Wineries of Washington State ran this bill in
the regular 2013 legislative session, but confusion on the part of some
industry stakeholders about whether the process was legal under federal law
de-railed the bill. Beveridge’s group has
since sought and received written clarification from federal regulators that,
with proper labeling and licensing, the concept is legal.
A peculiarity of federal law requires that any person
“re-packaging” wine, unlike beer, must have a federal license. Current Guidance
from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) interprets
filling of growlers to be repackaging. This is why it’s possible to have a
growler filled at a winery but not a wine shop. This guidance has been in place
since the 1970’s when the wine growler concept was not much in the public eye. “We hope, and have reason to believe that the
TTB might change their guidance and agree with us that this increasingly
popular process is simply retailing, not repackaging” Beveridge said. “Until
then the federal licensing requirement is certainly workable, if cumbersome.”
Family Wineries of Washington State is a business league
promoting member wineries and advocating for streamlined regulation and freedom
of marketing for small Washington wineries. ###
Paul
Beveridge, Board President
(206)325-3051
(206)-850-2098
board@familywineriesofWashington.org
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