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The Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) announced today that it is extending the excise tax filing deadlines for businesses affected by the current COVID-19 pandemic. The TTB is also postponing the dates that operational reports are due . I don’t have much to add to this except to state the obvious that this is merely a deadline extension. The TTB will want all alcohol excise tax that is due, you just have a little longer to file. Links: https://www.ttb.gov/industry-circulars/ttb-industry-circulars-2020-2 https://www.ttb.gov/industry-circulars/ttb-industry-circulars-2020-2-attachment-a https://www.ttb.gov/industry-circulars/ttb-industry-circulars-2020-2-attachment-b

I got a note today from David E. Block and Konrad V. Miller at UC Davis regarding the operational dangers of high-proof ethanol. I’m sure that this is all very familiar information to any distillers as well as winemakers making fortified wines. All the same, I’m going to post the note in it’s entirety just in case anyone in the wine industry that doesn’t have experience handling high-proof ethanol is now doing so. High-proof (e.g. 70%) ethanol can be an effective sanitizing agent against the coronavirus causing COVID-19.  Spraying of small winery surfaces or equipment for sanitization with this solution is not problematic, especially in a well-ventilated area.  However, pumping high proof ethanol (for the purpose of creating sanitizing solution or sanitizing large pieces of equipment) using a normal winery pump could be hugely dangerous (explosion hazard) and should be avoided.  While winery and distillery pumps are extremely similar, there are critical operational a...

Rosario Sánchez-Gómez, Eva P. Pérez-Alvarez, Rosario Salinas, Ana Gonzalo-Diago, Amaya Zalacain, Teresa Garde-Cerdan. “Effect of vine-shoot and oak extract foliar grapevine applications on oenological parameters, phenolic acids and glutathione content of white musts and wines,” Oeno One (2020).   I stumbled across a fascinating paper in Oeno One from a research group in Spain. In this research, grapevine shoots were sprayed with vine-shoot and oak-wood extracts. The foliar sprays had the result of reducing the final Brix/Baumé of the grapes at harvest. The authors also noted a general increase in the wine color quality for the treated vines. I think I would like to see the results from more trials, in more, different vineyards. However, this paper does seem to indicate that there is another way to dispose of vineyard canes after pruning than burning or chipping and composing them. I’ll post the abstract here with a link to the original paper. I intend to follow procedure wit...

TTB Allows Distilled Spirit Permittees to Produce Ethanol-based Hand Sanitizer without Further Permits through June 30, 2020 Last week I noted that several distilleries outside of the US were changing over to the production of hand sanitizer. I opined that it would be a good thing if US distilleries could follow suit. The somewhat byzantine regulations surrounding alcohol production in the US seemed to require a different permit than the beverage DSP (Distilled Spirits Plant) that must be held by all beverage alcohol producers. Since I wrote that column, the TTB has announced that it is exempting all beverage DSPs, as well as Alcohol Fuel Plants (AFPs), to produce hand sanitizer, and to supply ethanol for the use in manufacturing hand sanitizer, without having to acquire authorization from the TTB beforehand. There are several provisos that DSPs should keep in mind. Records regarding ethanol production should be kept as per usual. Hand sanitizers need to be produced according t...

Welcome to my home in the blogosphere. My name is Curtis Phillips and I have been a winemaker since the mid-1980s. I have worked for wineries both big and small and made wines for common winegrape varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel as well as less common cultivars like Pinot Gris, Sangiovese, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and rare grape varieties like Melon de Bourgogne, Viognier, and Dolcetto. For the past twenty years I have been Senior Technical Editor and columnist for Wine Business Monthly, Wine Business Insider, and winebusiness.com . All things must change. I am rearranging my schedule to make myself more availably to wineries, and other, that can benefit from an outside perspective. This can include the assistance and advice in every phase of winemaking from the vineyard to the retail shelf. Direct Inquiries to: winebusinesstech@gmail.com.