DRS defines “small winery” differently. Wineries producing not more than 55,000 gallons per year can pay a smaller excise tax on still wine (as your website explains), provided they file the annual affidavit and pay $50.

The bond requirements, if one is to register for consumer shipping (I did not see this mentioned in your summary of the law), are a $500 surety bond for the small winery permittee (the 100,000 gallon standard) and $2000 surety bond for the larger winery permittee.

Because the two permits allow for shipments to wholesalers (which was true before these permits were expanded to include direct consumer sales), “monthly reports” alway include a report of sales to distributors and, if registered with DRS to sell to consumers, an excise tax return and quarterly sales tax return. If the excise tax return must be prepared, it has to include all the CT sales, including those to distributors, retailers and consumers. Only the consumer sales incur excise tax because the other categories are subtracted on the tax form from the monthly sales total as exempt sales. Until they come up with a new form, the State of CT is using form O-255, which was not designed for reporting all the sales. For example, lines 1 and 7 on side two are always left blank for out-of-state wineries.

As you can see, I have spent a fair amount of time learning the details of their statutory framework. I would be happy to share any of my sources for this information. Thanks for your valuable service to the wine industry.