This made my newscast this morning:
>>California Lawmakers Want Federal Authority To Crack Down On State Wine Labeling
(Washington, DC) -- Federal regulators are proposing new rules to crack down on how wineries label their products. The federal Alcohol, Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau already requires at least 85-percent of the grapes in a wine to have come from the viticultural area listed, but the bureau has little authority to regulate wines sold only within state borders. The proposal to give it that authority is backed by California lawmakers and Sonoma and Napa Valley vintners and growers, who say out-of-state wineries are circumventing federal rules that also require the wine be produced within the state listed on the label.
They cite as examples a wine made and sold in Texas that uses Napa Valley on its label without evidence of any connection to the Napa Valley and a Brooklyn winery that uses Sonoma County's "Los Carneros" viticultural region on its label when only 40-percent of the grapes come from there and none of the wine is produced there.