Wine industry affected by government shutdown too

(Fox43) - Salvatore Cullari is in the business of making wine. He prides himself on making new creations. In August he decided to try his hand at a pumpkin wine for fall.

“I have never made one before. So I got all of the ingredients ready that I needed basically like pumpkin flavor, pumpkin extracts, and pumpkin spice. I kind of put together a mock sample of what I wanted to use,” said Salvatore Cullari, owner of Cullari Vineyards and Winery. “I was ready to get the formula approved and basically what happened was the government shut down. Everything was put on hold.”

Although Cullari knew about the looming shutdown he wasn’t expecting this. “I never even thought about it. When they were talking about a government shutdown, it’s one of those things you should know because it is a government agency, but it just kind of went over my head. I just didn’t even think about it,” said Cullari.

With any new wine that is not made entirely of grapes, you first have to get the ingredients, or formula, approved through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. “You have to get the formula approved first, they have to see what’s in there. Based on the formula they will tell you the exact wording you should put on the labels. It’s a two-step process,” said Cullari.

For all new wines the label must be approved through the agency. “For example lets say I was making for the first time a Chardonnay. I would still have to get the Chardonnay label approved. I would not have to get the formula approved because it’s 100% Chardonnay, but the label still has to be approved,” said Cullari.

If the shutdown ends soon, Callari hopes to get his pumpkin wine approved by Thanksgiving. The process usually takes six weeks. So he is concerned there may be a backlog. In which case, he would shelf his plans until next year.

“When the government does come back there’s probably going to be a huge waiting list of formulas and labels that have to be approved. And I don’t know how long it’s going to take to be honest,” said Cullari.