Alcoholic beverages: market research study: taste testing

The law creates a limited exception to restrictions on providing free alcoholic beverages, allowing producers to measure consumer views on taste and other sensory characteristics. It includes age, staffing, payment, recordkeeping, and anti-promotion safeguards.

What the law does ​

• Authorizes licensed wine, beer, and spirits producers and specified rectifiers to furnish alcohol tastes solely for bona fide sensory market research.
• Requires compliance with all applicable state, federal, and local alcohol laws.
• Requires trained responsible persons age 21 or older to administer or assist with testing.
• Limits participation to people age 21 or older and limits samples to those reasonably needed for an opinion.
• Allows uniform cash payments up to $500 per participant, bars noncash compensation, and limits each person to three of a licensee’s tests per year.
• Bars tests at or near other Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control-licensed locations, except the producer’s own licensed premises.
• Prohibits using tests to evade sampling rules, using results in advertising or promotion, or selling tested alcohol to participants that same day.
• Requires licensees to keep test records for at least three years and repeals the authorization on January 1, 2032.

Who it affects ​

• Licensed winegrowers, beer manufacturers, distilled spirits manufacturers, craft distillers, brandy manufacturers, rectifiers, and wine rectifiers.
• Adults age 21 or older who participate in taste-test studies.
• Wholesalers, retailers, and their employees, agents, and owners, who may not participate in the tests.