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U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., looks on while Corey Schuster, bar manager at Southeast Wine Collective, pours some 2012 Oregon pinot noir into a growler. The practice, halted by the feds, is legal again.

(Harry Esteve/The Oregonian)

Wine growlers are back in business in Oregon.

On Friday, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced that the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau had backed off a previous ruling that selling wine in refillable containers was illegal unless a business had a bottling license.

"I saw this as an example where a federal agency simply has not kept up with the times and is out of touch," Wyden said at a news conference held in a Southeast Portland wine shop.

Wine growers sought to take advantage of the huge growth in popularity of beer growlers by getting the Oregon Legislature to pass a law last year allowing stores and restaurants to pour wine into containers brought in by consumers.

Wineries saw the change as a chance to broaden their reach and give consumers a less expensive and eco-friendly way to try different varieties.

But the practice had barely begun when the feds sent out a notice to the state, telling businesses they couldn't offer wine in growlers without the proper licenses.

The ruling "put a cork in their ability to grow," Wyden said. It would have required stores and small bottle shops to be subject "to the same burdensome record-keeping, labeling and registration requirement as large wine bottling operations."

Wyden complained to the federal agecy, which said it would take a second look. On Friday, the agency issued its verdict, saying the growlers are OK.

"It is not TTB's intention to unduly burden the lawful sale of wine growlers in states such as Oregon," agency Administrator John Manfreda wrote in an April 25 letter to Wyden. Manfreda went on to say this his agency would look to "modernize our regulations to specifically address the filling of growlers with tax-paid wine."

It's the second time this week that a federal agency has retreated from enforcing laws aimed at Oregon's beer and wine industry.

On Thursday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would not force Oregon brewers to stop sending out their spent grains as livestock feed. The move had threatened to drive up the price of beer because of the added cost to brewers.

Wyden had intervened on that issue as well.

"In the last two days, we've had two big wins," Wyden said. "I don't know everything about beer, but I know when a federal agency has had one too many."

-- Harry Esteve