A. Any winery licensee or farm winery licensee may manufacture and sell cider to (i) the Board, (ii) any wholesale wine licensee, and (iii) persons outside the Commonwealth.
B. Any wholesale wine licensee may acquire and receive shipments of cider, and sell and deliver and ship the cider in accordance with Board regulations to (i) the Board, (ii) any wholesale wine licensee, (iii) any retail licensee approved by the Board for the purpose of selling cider, and (iv) persons outside the Commonwealth for resale outside the Commonwealth.
C. Any licensee authorized to sell alcoholic beverages at retail may sell cider in the same manner and to the same persons, and subject to the same limitations and conditions, as such license authorizes him to sell other alcoholic beverages.
D. Cider containing less than seven percent of alcohol by volume may be sold in any containers that comply with federal regulations for wine or beer, provided such containers are labeled in accordance with Board regulations. Cider containing seven percent or more of alcohol by volume may be sold in any containers that comply with federal regulations for wine, provided such containers are labeled in accordance with Board regulations.
E. No additional license fees shall be charged for the privilege of handling cider.
F. The Board shall collect such markup as it deems appropriate on all cider manufactured or sold, or both, in the Commonwealth.
G. The Board shall adopt regulations relating to the manufacture, possession, transportation and sale of cider as it deems necessary to prevent any unlawful manufacture, possession, transportation or sale of cider and to ensure that the markup required to be paid will be collected.
H. For the purposes of this section:
"Chaptalization" means a method of increasing the alcohol in a wine by adding sugar to the must before or during fermentation.
"Cider" means any beverage, carbonated or otherwise, obtained by the fermentation of the natural sugar content of apples or pears (i) containing not more than 10 percent of alcohol by volume without chaptalization or (ii) containing not more than seven percent of alcohol by volume regardless of chaptalization. Cider shall be treated as wine for all purposes of this title, except as otherwise provided in this title or Board regulations.
I. This section shall not limit the privileges set forth in subdivision 8 of § 4.1-200, nor shall any person be denied the privilege of manufacturing and selling sweet cider.
Code 1950, § 4-27; 1978, c. 174; 1980, c. 324; 1992, c. 349; 1993, c. 866; 2011, cc. 265, 288; 2014, c. 787; 2015, c. 412; 2017, c. 160.