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BATF regulations (Federal) for home winemaking. PLEASE check your state laws!

May 2008: Prohibition Repealed 75 years ago.
Slowly but slowly we make progress.

Forty six years later in early 1979, home brewing was legalized and home winemaking rules were simplified. We no longer had to post a document for the production of wine for family use in our cellar. I often thought that if a federal agent wanted to inspect our winemaking 'facility' in our basement, it served him right to hit his head on the way down the steps. Alas, no one ever came!

We have come along way. Our amateur winemakers are rivaling commercial winemakers.
Join us at Fall Bright for another winemaking season.


Prohibition repealed in Town Of Barrington, NY in 2017 election.
 

BATF The legal age for alcohol in the USA is 21 years old. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public possession of alcohol age to 21. States that did not comply faced a reduction in highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act.

BATF Clarification

Sec. 24.75
Wine for personal or family use

(a) General. Any adult may, without payment of tax, produce wine for personal or family use and not for sale.

(b) Quantity. The aggregate amount of wine that may be produced exempt from tax with respect to any household may not exceed:

(1) 200 gallons per calendar year for a household in which two or more adults reside, or
(2) 100 gallons per calendar year if there is only one adult residing in the household.
(c) Definition of an adult: However, since 1984, it is now 21. See below. For the purposes of this section,an adult is any individualwho is 18 years of age or older. However,if the locality (state) in which the household is located has established by law a greater minimum age at which wine may be sold to individuals, the term ``adult'' will mean an individual who has attained that age.  

Since then: The legal age for alcohol in the USA is 21 years old. The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public possession of alcohol age to 21. States that did not comply faced a reduction in highway funds under the Federal Highway Aid Act.

(d) Proprietors of bonded wine premises. Any adult, defined in Sec. 24.75(c), who operates a bonded wine premises as an individual owner or in partnership with others, may produce wine and remove it from the bonded wine premises free of tax for personal or family use, subject to the limitations in Sec. 24.75(b).

(e) Limitation. This exemption should not in any manner be construed as authorizing the production of wine in violation of applicable State or local law. Except as provided in Sec. 24.75(d), this exemption does not otherwise apply to partnerships, corporations, or associations.

(f) Removal. Wine produced under this section may be removed from the premises where made for personal or family use including use at organized affairs, exhibitions or competitions, such as home winemaker's contests, tastings or judgings, but may not under any circumstances be sold or offered for sale. The proprietor of a bonded wine premises shall pay the tax on any wine removed for personal or family use in excess of the limitations provided in this section and shall also enter all quantities removed for personal or family use on ATF F 5120.17, Report of Bonded Wine Premises Operations.

(Sec. 201, Pub. L. 85-859, 72 Stat. 1331, as amended (26 U.S.C. 5042))

(Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1512-0216)

[T.D. ATF-299, 55 FR 24989, June 19, 1991, as amended by T.D. ATF-338, 58 FR 19064, Apr. 12, 1993; T.D. ATF-344, 58 FR 40354, July 28, 1993]


NOTE": This was last updated on September 17, 1999

Marcy Mitchell
Fall Bright, The Winemakers Shoppe

 

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