Plain English Breakdown
The official text does not specify a final effective date, only that it was chaptered in October 2025.
AB-720: Updates to Alcohol Permits and Beverage Container Labels
This law clarifies that storing wine or topping barrels is not considered production at branch offices, allows wineries with specific license combinations to operate on the same premises, creates a new permit for off-site tasting events, and updates rules for labeling beverage containers.
What This Bill Does
- Clarifies that mere storage of wine or topping of wine barrels does not count as 'production' when done at branch offices away from the main winery.
- Allows a single location to hold both a master license (for growing grapes) and a branch license (for making brandy), permitting them to store, age, taste, and sell off-premises consumption of those beverages together.
- Creates an 'estate tasting event permit' allowing licensed winegrowers to exercise their tasting room privileges at specific off-site locations for events lasting the duration of the authorization.
- Sets a fee of $100 per estate tasting event authorization and requires an annual fee of $200 for the new permit, which can be transferred with the license.
- Allows beverage manufacturers to etch required recycling value messages onto containers instead of only printing or stamping them.
- Requires machine-readable codes on beverage containers intended for sale in California to be at least one-half inch in size.
Who It Names or Affects
- Licensed winegrowers and brandy manufacturers
- Beverage container manufacturers selling products in California
- The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
Terms To Know
- Master license
- A primary alcohol permit issued for the main location where production or business operations occur.
- Branch office
- An additional permitted location away from the main premises that can exercise certain privileges of the master license, such as storage.
- Redemption value message
- A label on a container stating how much money a consumer gets back when returning it for recycling.
Limits and Unknowns
- The estate tasting event permit limits licensees to no more than 36 events per calendar year.
- Off-site wine sales under the new permit must follow local land use rules and authority.
- Containers filled and labeled before July 1, 2025, are exempt from certain labeling requirements.