Starting January 1, 2024, wineries that ship wine to California must follow its new recycling rules. Read further!

First, if you send wines to California residents (for which you must have a direct shipper permit), you must register an account with the state’s recycling unit. Start setting aside $0.10452 (ten cents and four hundredth and fifty thousandths and two ten thousandths) per bottle sent down south.

You’ll be contacted in a few months from the state with instructions on how to remit that to the state.

Second, you must start to label the bottles with the letters “CA CRV” on a label. The letters must be at least 3/16th of an inch high or, if that’s too big, 1/8th of an inch in bold. This must be done as soon as possible but no later than July 1, 2025. (That’s a year and a half grace period!)

You must collect the money EVEN IF you don’t have the labels updated!

Third, if you have a distributor but you do not send wines to distributors, you don’t need to register but you do need to label your bottles appropriately.

Finally, if you are on VinoShipper….keep reading. VinoShipper has agreed to pay for your $0.10452 if you send the wine through them. So, do two things: (1) write in “VinoShipper client” in box 7 on the registration form; (2) start two columns of your sent wine sales, one for VinoShipper wines and the other for your own shipments

Hurrah for compliance, I reckon.