This approval shows a tremendous amount of change in eight short years. First of all, it is hard to imagine that the Bureau would ever allow the term “vodka” on a beer label. Somehow I don’t think that would fly in this day and age. Further, the qualification seems to mandate the use of this term, in a particular way. The qualification suggests that the arrangement of the words may lead to controversy, rather than the reference to vodka and a famous vodka brand on a beer label. Pages 12-22 of this document show the controversy.
Second, the product is gone. So is the named agency (that is, the label functions have moved from ATF to TTB). So is the person that approved it. Judy was tremendously helpful and probably had many good reasons to approve this label, in a different era. I wouldn’t want to mention the person, but for the fact that the name is right there and the memories are good.
This is also a good example of a “use-up.” The approval tends to say the label is not ideal but the agency will allow it to be used for six months only. I believe TTB/ATF has allowed use-ups for many, many decades. It is difficult to imagine other agencies allowing this privilege, such as FDA allowing a dubious label but only for a few months, or Customs allowing a dubious origin statement for a few more months. For these reasons, I wanted to highlight the label before it fades further into history.
Archives for February 2010
Keg Wine
It’s a good thing TTB never got far with the proposal to ban non-traditional containers. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have beer in boxes, spirits in a skull, nor the wine in steel kegs above.
From the looks of this approval, Jordan Kivelstadt plans to pack high-end wines in 20 liter refillable kegs. His website says:
Free Flow Wines is the first wine company dedicated to producing draught wines. We produce premium wines and “bottle” them in sustainable, stainless steel kegs, for restaurants, bars, and catering companies.
Apart from Free Flow and JK Cellars, Jordan is the winemaker at Pavo Wines. The Pavo site explains that in a few short years since graduating with an engineering degree, Jordan has worked at wineries in Sonoma, Australia and Argentina.