3rd April, 2020 by Melita Kiely

The Distilled Spirits Council of the US (Discus) has welcomed the “first major” alcohol labelling and advertising changes from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in decades.

The TTB will make its final rule on the Modernization of the Labelling and Advertising Regulations on 4 May.

The update will include abandoning a proposal to limit age statements on spirits labels to include only the time the spirit was aged in the first barrel, and omitting subsequent barrels.

It has also abandoned a proposal to define ‘oak barrel’ for purposes of ageing distilled spirits in an “overly restrictive manner”.

The new regulations also approve age statements on all classes and types of distilled spirits, except for grain spirits.

Chris Swonger, Discus president and CEO, said: “This final rule adopts many of the recommendations included in the Discus submission filed last June. This was an enormous undertaking by the TTB and represents the first major update to the part five labelling and advertising regulations in decades.

“We greatly appreciate the effort that went into carefully reviewing the submissions and finalising regulations that reflect today’s modern marketplace and provide distillers with greater flexibility to develop and market new innovative products.

“We look forward to working with TTB to develop new standards of identity for American single malt whiskey and American rye whiskey, which we fully support. The formal establishment of these categories would signal to the world that not only do we believe in and support our own distilleries, but also recognise that these categories are unique and deserve to be defined and protected.”