May 26, 2011 Chairman John A. Girgenti Senate Law and Public Safety Committee Committee Room 10, 3rd Floor State House Annex 125 W State St Trenton, NJ 08608-1101 Dear Chairman Girgenti and Members of the Committee: WineAmerica, the National Association of American Wineries, on behalf of our member wineries in New Jersey and across the … Read more

By Cary M. Greene Last week, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association (“WSWA”) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (“NBWA”) published a pair of opinion pieces in The Hill, “The Right Approach to Alchohol Policy, and Huffington Post, “Nobody’s Coming to Stop Your Wine Shipment… or Mine Either!”. In defending the indefensible H.R. 1161, the … Read more

By Cary M. Greene Last week, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association (“WSWA”) and the National Beer Wholesalers Association (“NBWA”) published a pair of opinion pieces in The Hill, http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/161887-the-right-approach-to-alcohol-policy, and Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-johnson/nobodys-coming-to-stop-yo_b_861575.html. In defending the indefensible H.R. 1161, the associations accused the “opposition,” which includes WineAmerica, of being composed of: …a syndicate of … Read more

By Michael Kaiser Last week WineAmerica and the Winegrape Growers of America (WGA) held the annual Wine and Grape Policy Conference at the Phoenix Park Hotel here in Washington, DC. The annual conference allows the Board of Directors for both organizations a chance to meet, as well as for joint policy meetings. This year we … Read more

On Friday, April 29, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) issued a clarification on their February 2, 2011 notice suspending “expedite requests” and informal review of alcohol beverage labels. As members of the industry are well aware, the processing time for Certificate of Label Approval (COLA) submissions has been drastically increased in … Read more