Vineyard to Settle Mislabeling Charges
Associated Press
Rabbit Ridge Vineyards of Healdsburg, Calif., has agreed to pay $810,000 to resolve federal charges that it misled consumers with its wine bottle labels.
The settlement with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was the largest ever for a California winery, ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said. .
It came after a six-month investigation in which ATF agents found “significant violations” at the winery from 1994 to 2000, McKee said.
According to the ATF charges, the winery mislabeled more than 17,000 cases of wine with erroneous vintage dates, geographical information and brand names.
Federal agents also found more than 28,000 cases of wine that had no records to back up the information on their labels.
