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May 2008: Prohibition Repealed 75 years ago.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repealed in Town Of Barrington, NY in 2017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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