TTB Newsletter for March 15, 2024

TTB Establishes Contra Costa AVA and Expands Central Coast and San Francisco Bay AVAs

This week we formally established the Contra Costa American Viticultural Area (AVA). This approximately 167,146-acre AVA is located in Contra Costa County, California. Additionally, TTB is expanding the boundaries of the established San Francisco Bay and Central Coast AVAs to fully encompass the new Contra Costa AVA.

Bottlers who wish to label their wines with the Contra Costa AVA name as an appellation of origin must obtain a new Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) for the label, even if the currently approved label already contains another AVA appellation of origin. Please do not submit COLA applications for labels using the new AVAs until April 15, 2024, the effective date of this final rule.

Please see Docket No. TTB-2023-0004 on Regulations.gov for all documents and public comments related to this rulemaking, including the final rule, T.D. TTB-191.

You also may view the boundaries of the newly-established ad expanded AVAs on our AVA Map Explorer.

Administrative Approval of Wine Treating Material

We have granted administrative approval for the use of molecularly-imprinted adsorbent resins (molecularly imprinted polymers or MIPs) as a wine treating material to aid in the removal of off flavors or aromas in wine. As a result, winemakers may now use this material, within any limitations specified at Wine and Juice Treating Materials and Processes for Domestic Wine Production, without requesting TTB approval.

Note that administrative approval does not guarantee that a wine using the material will be acceptable in foreign markets. Whether it is approved for use in foreign markets depends upon the rules of the importing countries. TTB grants administrative approvals of wine treating materials and processes pending publication of a notice for public comment on the administrative approval and whether to include the materials and processes in the regulations. Incorporating approvals in the regulations through rulemaking, after the opportunity for public comment, may result in acceptance of the treated wine in certain foreign markets. Those materials and processes that have been approved through rulemaking are set forth in the TTB regulations at 27 CFR 24.246 - 24.248.

For further information on this and any other administrative approvals, you may visit Wine and Juice Treating Materials and Processes for Domestic Wine Production at TTB.gov to view all the administrative approvals we've granted.

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