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Wine bottles are ready for filling at the Bent Brick, thanks to Oregon's law that allows pinots, rieslings and such to be poured into refillable containers.

(Sunny Strader/The Oregonian)

Oregon’s still-new wine growler law appears to have run afoul with the federal government, prompting a rare letter of protest from the state’s entire congressional delegation.

Last month the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau alerted state and federal officials that it had problems with a 2013 law passed by the Oregon Legislature allowing consumers to buy wine in refillable containers at stores and restaurants.

The TTB, a branch of the Treasury Department, ruled that filling wine growlers “is an activity that may be conducted lawfully only by a qualified tax-paid wine bottling house.”

That threw a wrench into what has become a quick trend -- expanding the beer growler fad into local pinots and rieslings. Suddenly, store and restaurant owners were faced with new fees and regulations they hadn't counted on, said Dan Jarman, a lobbyist for the Oregon Winegrowers Association, who helped push for the new law.

“It’s just very overly burdensome and it doesn’t make sense,” Jarman said of the TTB ruling. “It took us by surprise.”

Complaints reached Washington D.C., where U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., spearheaded a united effort among the Oregon delegation to get the TTB to cut the new law some slack. They all signed a letter that said, in essence, Oregonians like their growlers, and why should the Treasury Department spoil the good times?

“We ask that you immediately take action to reverse this unnecessary and unneeded limitation on Oregon businesses,” said the April 1 letter, addressed to John Manfreda, administrator of the TTB.

The strong reaction may have hit home.

“At this point, we are looking into what it is possible to do in regard to what folks want,” said TTB spokesman Thomas Hogue. Hogue noted that there is some fairly strict federal tax code about alcohol sales, and that’s why the TTB stepped in.

The ruling puts wine growler sales in limbo for the moment. But perhaps not for long.

“We are hoping to come out with some additional guidance very soon,” Hogue said.

-- Harry Esteve