Tennessee § 57-3-101 - Title definitions.

§ 57-3-101. Title definitions.

As used in this title, unless the context requires otherwise: “Alcoholic beverage” or “beverage” means and includes alcohol, spirits, liquor, wine, high alcohol content beer, and every liquid containing alcohol, spirits, wine, and high alcohol content beer and capable of being consumed by a human being, other than patent medicine or beer, as defined in § 57-5-101. Notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in this title, except for beer as defined in § 57-5-101(b), “alcoholic beverage” or “beverage” also includes any liquid product containing distilled alcohol capable of being consumed by a human being, manufactured or made with distilled alcohol, regardless of alcohol content. Liquid products intended for beverage purposes containing alcohol that do not meet the definition of beer under § 57-5-101(b) shall also be alcoholic beverages. Notwithstanding this subdivision (a)(1)(A), products or beverages containing less than one-half of one percent (0.5%) alcohol by volume, other than wine as defined in this section, shall not be considered to be alcoholic beverages, and shall not be subject to regulation or taxation pursuant to chapters 1-6 and 9 of this title. Notwithstanding this definition, ethanol produced in a facility whose production process is primarily a wet milling process in bulk and sold and transported in bulk lots of five thousand gallons (5,000 gals.) or more and not packaged for retail sale by the holder of a valid alcohol fuels permit or a valid distilled spirits permit: For export to another country; To a domestic manufacturer, distiller, vintner, or rectifier who is a duly licensed alcohol beverage or liquor manufacturer in this or some other state; or To a manufacturer who uses the ethanol to create a product which is incapable of human consumption or contains less than one-half of one percent (0.5%) alcohol by volume; shall not be considered to be an alcoholic beverage and shall not be subject to regulation or taxation pursuant to chapters 1-6 and 9 of this title; “Commission” means the alcoholic beverage commission, except as otherwise provided; “Distiller” means any person who owns, occupies, carries on, works, conducts or operates any distillery either personally or by an agent; “Distillery” means and includes any place or premises wherein any liquors are manufactured for sale; “Federal license” does not mean tax receipt or permit; “Gallon” or “gallons” means a wine gallon or wine gallons, of one hundred and twenty-eight ounces (128 oz.); “Gift” means and includes the unauthorized distribution of alcoholic beverages by a licensee for which no payment is expected or received; provided, however, that it does not include any such transaction between a licensee and its employee or employees in the normal course of employment or depletions from a licensee's inventory related to routine business or marketing purposes where all applicable taxes have been paid; “High alcohol content beer” means an alcoholic beverage which is beer, ale or other malt beverage having an alcoholic content of more than eight percent (8%) by weight and not more than twenty percent (20%) by weight, except wine as defined in § 57-3-101, that is brewed, regulated, distributed or sold pursuant to chapter 3 of this title; provided, that no more than forty-nine percent (49%) of the overall alcoholic content of such beverage may be derived from the addition of flavors and other nonbeverage ingredients containing alcohol; “Importer” means any person or entity holding a non-manufacturer non-resident seller's permit pursuant to § 57-3-602(c) or any entity causing alcoholic beverages to be delivered or shipped into this state holding an importer's basic permit from the alcohol and tobacco tax and trade bureau of the United States department of the treasury; “License” means the license issued pursuant to this chapter; “Licensee” means any person to whom such license has been issued pursuant to this chapter; “Manufacture” means and includes brewing high alcohol content beer, distilling, rectifying and operating a winery; “Manufacturer” means and includes a brewer of high alcohol content beer, distiller, vintner and rectifier; “Municipality” means an incorporated town or city having a population of nine hundred twenty-five (925) persons or over by the federal census of 1950 or any subsequent federal census; provided, however, that when any incorporated town or city by ordinance authorizes a census to be taken of such incorporated town or city and shall furnish to the commission a certified copy of the census containing the name, address, age and sex of each person enumerated therein, and if the census shall show that the incorporated town or city has a population of nine hundred twenty-five (925) persons or over, the commission, upon verification of the census, may declare such incorporated town or city to be a “municipality” for all intents and purposes of this chapter; “Pint” means one eighth (1/8) of a wine gallon; “Quart” means one fourth (¼) of a wine gallon; “Rectifier” means and includes any person who rectifies, purifies or refines distilled spirits or wines by any process other than as provided for on distillery premises, and every person who, without rectifying, purifying or refining distilled spirits, shall, by mixing such spirits, wine or other liquor with any material, manufacture any imitation of, or compounds liquors for sale under the name of, whiskey, brandy, gin, rum, wine, spirits, cordials, bitters or any other name; “Retail food store wine license” means a license for the sale of wine at retail in a retail food store as defined in part 8 of this chapter; “Retailer” means any person who sells at retail any beverage for the sale of which a license is required under this chapter; “Retail sale” or “sale at retail” means a sale to a consumer or to any person for any purpose other than for resale; provided, however, that it does not include any transaction between a licensee and its employee or employees in the normal course of employment for which no payment is expected or received or depletions from a licensee's inventory related to routine business or marketing purposes where all applicable taxes have been paid; “Vintner” means any person who owns, occupies, carries on, works, conducts or operates any winery, either personally or by an agent; “Wholesaler” means any person who sells at wholesale any beverage for the sale of which a license is required under this chapter; “Wholesale sale” or “sale at wholesale” means a sale to any person for purposes of resale, except that sales by a person licensed under § 57-3-204 to a charitable, nonprofit, or political organization possessing a valid special occasion license for resale by such organizations pursuant to their special occasion license shall not be construed as such a sale; “Wine” means the product of the normal alcoholic fermentation of the juice of fresh, sound, ripe grapes, with the usual cellar treatment and necessary additions to correct defects due to climatic, saccharine and seasonal conditions, including champagne, sparkling and fortified wine of an alcoholic content not to exceed twenty-one percent (21%) by volume. No other product shall be called “wine” unless designated by appropriate prefixes descriptive of the fruit or other product from which the same was predominantly produced, or an artificial or imitation wine; and “Winery” means and includes any place or premises wherein wines are manufactured from any fruit or brandies distilled as the by-product of wine or other fruit or cordials compounded, and also includes a winery for the manufacture of wine. Words importing the masculine gender include the feminine and the neuter, and the singular includes the plural. Acts 1939, ch. 49, §§ 3, 4, 13; 1949, ch. 284, § 9; C. Supp. 1950, §§ 6648.4, 6648.19 (Williams, §§ 6648.6, 6648.7, 6648.16); Acts 1955, ch. 347, § 2A; impl. am. Acts 1959, ch. 9, § 14; Acts 1963, ch. 257, § 11; modified; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 57-106; Acts 1981, ch. 404, § 4; 1982, ch. 877, § 5; 1983, ch. 229, § 4; 1986, ch. 516, § 1; 1989, ch. 325, § 1; 1991, ch. 58, § 1; 1997, ch. 155, § 2; 2005, ch. 298, § 1; 2009, ch. 395, §§ 1, 2; 2011, ch. 448, §§ 7-11; 2014, ch. 554, § 6; 2014, ch. 767, § 3; 2014, ch. 861, § 1; 2015, ch. 269, § 1. Compiler's Notes. This chapter, to the extent that the provisions hereof are in direct conflict with the provisions of §§ 12-2-201 — 12-2-204 , as to the authority vested by such sections in the commissioner of general services for the advertising and sale of contraband intoxicating beverages and motor vehicles, is repealed by Acts 1959, ch. 303, § 5. For tables of populations of Tennessee municipalities, see Volume 13 and its supplement. Textbooks. Tennessee Jurisprudence, 16 Tenn. Juris., Intoxicating Liquors, §§ 2, 5-9, 11, 12, 16, 23. Law Reviews. Selected Tennessee Legislation of 1986, 54 Tenn. L. Rev. 457 (1987). The Wine Is In the Mail: The Twenty-First Amendment and State Laws Against the Direct Shipment of Alcoholic Beverages, 54 Vand. L. Rev. 2495 (2001). Attorney General Opinions. Applicability to foodstuff products, OAG 90-31, 1990 Tenn. AG LEXIS 38 (3/7/90). Hard cider, OAG 94-75, 1994 Tenn. AG LEXIS 78 (7/8/94). Because a county previously approved liquor-by-the-drink sales through a county-wide referendum, this referendum made such sales legal within a city meeting the definition of a municipality under T.C.A. § 57-3-101 ; further, the exclusion of certain municipalities from the effects of a county-wide referendum as described in T.C.A. § 57-3-106(g)(1) did not apply to the city because its population is, and always has been, smaller than the least populous county according to the 1960 and subsequent censuses, OAG 02-092, 2002 Tenn. AG LEXIS 97 (8/28/02). NOTES TO DECISIONS 1. Legislative Authority to Regulate Liquor. 2. Nature of Statute. 3. Application. 4. Effect on Other Statutes. 5. Relation to Interstate Commerce. 6. Definitions. 7. —Retailer. 8. —Consideration in Revocation of Licenses. 9. —Alcoholic Beverage. 10. —Municipality. 1. Legislative Authority to Regulate Liquor. The right of the state to regulate liquor traffic does not flow from the prohibition amendment, but flows from its police power which was all powerful to deal with the subject of police power regulation unless it distinctly contravened such amendment. State ex rel. Major v. Cummings, 178 Tenn. 378, 158 S.W.2d 713, 1941 Tenn. LEXIS 68, 139 A.L.R. 837 (1942). 2. Nature of Statute. This statute cannot have effect save as a local option law. Akers v. State, 175 Tenn. 674, 137 S.W.2d 281, 1939 Tenn. LEXIS 91 (1940). Title 57, ch. 3, is not a local law, in the sense of being passed for the benefit of a particular county only, but is a general statewide law, applicable to the entire state, but effective for its general purposes in such counties only as may adopt it. Vickers v. State, 176 Tenn. 415, 142 S.W.2d 188, 1939 Tenn. LEXIS 132 (1940). Municipalities may exercise a degree of reasonable regulation after the license is issued, but prior thereto their sole power is to grant or withhold certificates based upon the applicant's character. Chattanooga v. Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Com., 525 S.W.2d 470, 1975 Tenn. LEXIS 658 (Tenn. 1975). 3. Application. Title 57, ch. 3 has application only: (1) In excepted territory, when carved out by local will; and (2) Under exceptional circumstances and on specific conditions definitely detailed in this chapter. Chadrick v. State, 175 Tenn. 680, 137 S.W.2d 284, 1939 Tenn. LEXIS 92 (1940). 4. Effect on Other Statutes. Title 57, ch. 3 does not work a repeal by implication of the provisions of the Code prohibiting the reception, possession and transportation of intoxicating liquors. Akers v. State, 175 Tenn. 674, 137 S.W.2d 281, 1939 Tenn. LEXIS 91 (1940). 5. Relation to Interstate Commerce. Under the decisions of the federal courts alcoholic beverages retain their interstate commerce character until they actually enter the forbidden state, and if the statutes should be construed so as to prohibit such transportation, they would be void because violative of the commerce clause of U.S. Const., art. 1, § 8, cl. 3. McCanless v. Graham, 177 Tenn. 57, 146 S.W.2d 137, 1940 Tenn. LEXIS 11 (1941). Where the only act engaged in by defendant which can in any wise be related to these statutes is that of transporting intoxicating liquors from outside the state through dry counties of Tennessee to Mississippi in violation of its statutes, such liquor is not contraband within the meaning of title 57, ch. 3, since those acts are limited to the “manufacture, sale, receipt, possession, storage, transportation and distribution of, and traffic in, alcoholic beverages, in counties and municipalities of this state,” as the purpose of the legislature was to make it unlawful to commit such acts in Tennessee, and not to regulate the liquor traffic in other states. McCanless v. Graham, 177 Tenn. 57, 146 S.W.2d 137, 1940 Tenn. LEXIS 11 (1941). 6. Definitions. 7. —Retailer. Under the definition of a retailer in this section any person who sells whiskey at retail must be regarded as falling within that description regardless of whether he makes one sale or many sales. Hill v. State, 176 Tenn. 475, 144 S.W.2d 734, 1940 Tenn. LEXIS 89 (1940). 8. —Consideration in Revocation of Licenses. In considering whether terms of licenses had been violated by retailers commissioner could properly consider definitions of “retail sale,” “sale at retail,” “retailer,” “wholesale sale” and “sale at wholesale” as contained in this section and had the discretionary authority to revoke such licenses if he found the holders to be doing a wholesale business. Little v. MacFarland, 206 Tenn. 665, 337 S.W.2d 233, 1960 Tenn. LEXIS 416 (1960). 9. —Alcoholic Beverage. On appeal, beverage admitted into evidence and examined by jury would be presumed to be capable of being consumed by a human being. State v. Bush, 626 S.W.2d 470, 1981 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 394 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1981). 10. —Municipality. Only the urban services district, and not the entirety of Davidson County, is a municipality within the definition of T.C.A. § 57-3-101 . Templeton v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, 650 S.W.2d 743, 1983 Tenn. App. LEXIS 699 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1983).