ATF Follies

[Ashby Lawson]

Bucko, I agree, for the most part, that the labeling issue is a tempest in a teapot. But it should be noted that some wineries, or at least one that I'm aware of, engage in questionable labeling practices that might help them move their product.
The Virginia wine industry has done quite well, at least inside the state. A particularly bad vintage (1996?), though, left many wineries without decent fruit. One winery, which purchases all of its grapes from other in-state growers, couldn't find decent fruit in-state, so they used California grapes.
No problem so far. But instead of labeling the wine as "California", which would have damaged their in-state sales (which I would suspect are the bulk of their sales), they chose not to label the wine vis-a-vis place, which means they couldn't sell it outside of the state. But hey, if most of their sales are in-state anyway, they don't have a problem.
So, they can deceive the public, circumvent the ATF, and not really suffer. That's shady, in my opinion.