Home.Wine.Options for Entering the Wine Industry

What are my options for entering the wine industry?

Bonded Winery: Some people dream of owning their own winery and producing wine for sale. They will qualify with TTB as a Bonded Winery.

Alternating Proprietor: Others would also like to make wine for commercial purposes, but are not interested in building or buying a winery of their own. These companies find that sharing a winery facility with other companies will suit their purposes, and will qualify with TTB as an Alternating Proprietor winery.

Custom Crush Client (Wholesaler): Still others have grapes or other winemaking materials that they would like to have made into wine, but would prefer that someone else make the wine for them. These companies are Custom Crush Clients, and will qualify as Wholesalers. The Bonded Wineries that produce the wine for the Wholesalers are known as Custom Crush wineries.

Bonded Wine Cellar: Some companies will qualify with TTB as a Bonded Wine Cellar, which is a bonded storage warehouse established to store, blend, or bottle untaxpaid wine.

(Note: the Internal Revenue Code identifies all premises where untaxpaid wine operations take place as "bonded wine cellars," and those premises where wine is produced as "bonded wineries." For our purposes here, the term "bonded wine cellar" will be used to identify those premises which store, blend, or bottle untaxpaid wine, but do not produce wine.)

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