The California legislature has gone on record as opposing rule changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury Tax and Trade Bureau that would have an effect on the pending application by Calistoga vintners to form an American Viticulture Area.

The Assembly last week voted 79-0 to approve Senate Joint Resolution 22, which asked the TTB to withdraw two rule changes. Current law requires that 85 percent of grapes used in a wine must come from the AVA in order to use the AVA on the label.

One of the changes would allow a winery to use the name “Calistoga” on the label, even though the wine contains juice from less than 85 percent of grapes sourced from Calistoga. The other would prevent a winery from using more than one AVA name on a label – for example, a winery cannot use both Yountville or Oakville and Napa Valley.

Under the TTB’s proposal, one vintner, Calistoga Cellars, would be “grandfathered” in under the law, but a second vintner, Calistoga Estate, would be required to change its name.

The resolution, co-sponsored by Sen. Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa) and Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), said, “The proposed changes could make it very, very difficult for our wine industry to trade fairly both domestically and internationally, and they could similarly impact wine producers in other states.”

Then senate had approved the bill previously.

Wiggins said she plans to send the select committee’s principal consultant to Washington to hand-deliver the resolution to the TTB and to Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and other members of Congress.