TTB Amends Standards for Pisco and Cognac

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has issued a final rule amending the standards for cognac and pisco, a type of brandy manufactured in Peru and Chile. According to TTB, the final rule honors an international agreement with Peru and Chile recognizing pisco as a distinctive product of those countries in exchange for the recognition of Bourbon Whiskey and Tennessee Whiskey as distinctive products of the United States.

The final rule clarifies that pisco is “a type of brandy that must be manufactured in accordance with the laws and regulations of either Peru or Chile” and removes “Pisco brandy” from the list of examples of geographic designations in the distilled spirits standard of identity. Under the new rules, qualifying products can now bear the name “Pisco” or any of its equivalents—“Pisco Perú,” “Pisco Chileno” or “Chilean Pisco” without needing to add the term “brandy” to the label, “in the same way that a product label with the type designation ‘Cognac’ is not required to also bear the class designation ‘brandy.’” Making a technical correction, the bureau has also removed “Cognac” from “the list of examples of geographical names that are not names for distinctive types of distilled spirits, and that have not become generic,” because the term “Cognac” is already defined under §5.22(d)(2) of TTB regulations (27 CFR 5.22) “as grape brandy distilled in the Cognac region of France, which is entitled to be so designated by the laws and regulations of the French Government.” See Federal Register, May 16, 2013.