The Darkside gets theirs....

[Innkeeper]

Could not agree more with what has been written above. Many thanks to Roberto for bringing this disgrace to our attention. Hate to say this, but there is also a dark side to the ATF. In Dan Berger's Vintage Experiences that arrived today Dan documents some very diappointing exploits by our government.

Charles Krug Winery had to pay a $300,000.00 fine for a neckband that the ATF had approved 35 previous times. Soon after the conglomerate Bronco Wine Company bought Napa Ridge from Beringer, they started getting heat from the ATF about the name. After being vindicated by an administrative law judge, further pressure from the ATF forced them to pay a $750,000.00 fine. This is called surprisingly, "Government Blackmail." The ATF is also somewhat inefficient. One winery submitted 12 labels for approval including one named after an ATF approved AVA. You guessed it all but that one got approved. It was referred to the "Hard Team." A call from the winery to the Hard Team revealed they the Hard Team had never heard of the AVA and were going to disapprove the label. The winery faxed the ATF their approval form form for the AVA, and the then the ATF said they would approve it. Then they notified the winery to resubmit all 12 label applications because they had lost them.

Dan Berger was a friend and contemporary of our founder Jerry Mead. He took over the e-mail versions of the Wine Trader after Jerry died for a full year. He is now one of the sole voices crying in the wilderness. Highly recommend you subscribe to his newsletter. It is $85 for those in the business, and $52 for most of rest of us. Contact him at info@VintageExperiences.com. I highly recommed it.