California: Paso Winegrowers Back on TTB Track

(Wines&Vines) - It may be a record: In 2007, 59 winery owners and grapegrowers from Paso Robles asked the TTB to establish 11 subappellations within the 612,000-acre Paso Robles American Viticultural Area. The petitions, which occupy more than 30 pages of small type on the TTB website, remained in limbo for almost seven years, stalled while the TTB revisited its internal procedures and halted approvals for subappellations.

Wines & Vines and other industry media published extensive reports about the petition at the time, so there was a certain sense of “déjà vu all over again” when TTB posted Notice 140 on its website last week. Was this the same petition? The same petitioners?

In its announcement, the bureau explained its policies and rationale: “TTB is issuing this proposal in response to 11 petitions submitted simultaneously by the Paso Robles American Viticultural Area Committee, a local wine industry group whose 59 members cumulatively own or manage over 10,000 acres of vineyards within the proposed viticultural areas. TTB designates viticultural areas to allow vintners to better describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better identify wines they may purchase.”

The original 2007 petition from the ad hoc Paso Robles AVA Committee headed by Jerry Lohr, remains intact in virtually all details. Christopher Taranto, spokesman for the Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, confirmed that although the TTB took its time to question certain issues, the committee’s initial investment in money and time eventually paid off, and no additional research was required.