A BUSKLAW Newsletter Aside: Apparently having nothing better to do, the Feds prohibit the micro-consumption of ocean-aged wine...
The folks at the U.S. Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ATTB) have a lot of time on their hands. Otherwise, what would account for their draconian efforts to prevent Mira Winery, a reputable Napa Valley vintner, from exploring the aging effects of seawater on a small sample of their wine production?
As Mira's President, Jim Dyke, describes in "The Wine-Dark Sea of Regulation" in today's Wall Street Journal, Mira decided to see if "intentionally submerging wine bottles for months at a time could speed the aging process and enhance flavor." So, they submerged 28 bottles of their 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon in steel cages 60 feet under the waves in Charleston Harbor, where "there exists a promising blend of temperature, pressure, and darkness, with the additional variable of constant motion." To protect the wine, the top of each bottle was coated with a high-grade wax sealant.
Mira retrieved the submerged wine after three months and proceeded to compare it in tastings around the country it with normally-stored wine from the same vintage and production lot. And the tasters concluded that the submerged wine showed uncharacteristically round tannins - the sign of a mature wine.
Mira repeated the test with a few more cases and conducted more tastings. Then, in late 2014, the ATTB decided that the submerged wine could not be legally sold, shipped, or consumed, because in their opinion, wine aged in the ocean must be adulterated within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Act. The wine, you see, was "held under unsanitary conditions." No matter that Charleston Harbor is a renowned fishing attraction; apparently, the fish swimming about the submerged wine are perfectly fine to ingest, but somehow the wine is not!
And there is not one shred of evidence that Mira's "drowned" wine was adulterated in any way. Mira's own laboratory tests and observations revealed that it was not contaminated. None who sampled the wine became ill. And the FDA did not deign to test any of the submerged bottles.
The ATTB and the FDA have no business engaging in these prohibitory efforts in the absence that Mira's ocean-aged wine was in fact adulterated. And our tax dollars should not go to fund these irrational regulatory initiatives.
The federal government should instead encourage Mira's attempts to understand the ocean-aging effects on wine so that, as Mr. Dyke states, "we can try to simulate them on dry land. We don't envision expanding into vast underwater wine storage..."
I applaud Mira's efforts in seeking legal recourse against the ATTB and the FDA to end these regulatory actions run amuck.
As Mira's President, Jim Dyke, describes in "The Wine-Dark Sea of Regulation" in today's Wall Street Journal, Mira decided to see if "intentionally submerging wine bottles for months at a time could speed the aging process and enhance flavor." So, they submerged 28 bottles of their 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon in steel cages 60 feet under the waves in Charleston Harbor, where "there exists a promising blend of temperature, pressure, and darkness, with the additional variable of constant motion." To protect the wine, the top of each bottle was coated with a high-grade wax sealant.
Mira retrieved the submerged wine after three months and proceeded to compare it in tastings around the country it with normally-stored wine from the same vintage and production lot. And the tasters concluded that the submerged wine showed uncharacteristically round tannins - the sign of a mature wine.
Mira repeated the test with a few more cases and conducted more tastings. Then, in late 2014, the ATTB decided that the submerged wine could not be legally sold, shipped, or consumed, because in their opinion, wine aged in the ocean must be adulterated within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Food and Drug Act. The wine, you see, was "held under unsanitary conditions." No matter that Charleston Harbor is a renowned fishing attraction; apparently, the fish swimming about the submerged wine are perfectly fine to ingest, but somehow the wine is not!
And there is not one shred of evidence that Mira's "drowned" wine was adulterated in any way. Mira's own laboratory tests and observations revealed that it was not contaminated. None who sampled the wine became ill. And the FDA did not deign to test any of the submerged bottles.
The ATTB and the FDA have no business engaging in these prohibitory efforts in the absence that Mira's ocean-aged wine was in fact adulterated. And our tax dollars should not go to fund these irrational regulatory initiatives.
The federal government should instead encourage Mira's attempts to understand the ocean-aging effects on wine so that, as Mr. Dyke states, "we can try to simulate them on dry land. We don't envision expanding into vast underwater wine storage..."
I applaud Mira's efforts in seeking legal recourse against the ATTB and the FDA to end these regulatory actions run amuck.
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