American Wine & Importing Co. v. United States

Richardson, Judge:

This case involves the tariff reclassification of Lambrusco Amabile red wine imported from Italy.

The U.S. Customs Service classified the imported merchandise under item 167.10, TSUS, as modified by T.D. 68-9 with a duty rate of $1.17 per gallon, plus $3.40 per gallon Internal Revenue Tax under 26 U.S.C. 6041(b)(4) — a total of $67,000 — as “champagne and other sparkling wines,” on the basis of an official laboratory report of one bottle of the imported merchandise by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Field Laboratory in Atlanta, Ga., which showed that the carbon…