Archive for the ‘Shipping Wine’ Category
No single wine related organization in America contributes more money to political campaigns than the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association. A national association representing 90% of America’s wine wholesalers, WSWA is a strong and powerful proponent not just for its members across the United States but for the entrenched three-tier system. WSWA has been instrumental in crafting and delivering the message that minors can and are put in danger by direct shipping to consumers. WSWA was instrumental in getting passed…
Over the past few months FERMENTATION has tried to cover a variety of political battes involving wine and wine distribution and sales in particular. We’ve been candid in our position that money usually sways the outcome of these battles. That is to say, campaign contributions tend to deliver not only access to office holders, but too often results in success in state houses across the country and in Washington. With the 2006 campaign cycle roaring into high gear, we thought…
Yea…Michigan State officials are throwing a real hissy fit. They are apparently upset with the costs they are obligated to pay the attorneys that beat them at the Supreme Court last year in the Granholm v. Heald wine decision. Their tantrum boils down to this: They don’t like what it cost their opponents to beat them. Among their claims is that it was unnecessary to bring in Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of Stanford law School, to write the "merits brief" as…
It appears that Indiana’s wine wholesalers, in cahoots with the legislature, have successfully gobbled up more of the state’s wine market, while making it more difficult for Indiana consumers to purchase wines and Indiana wineries to do business. And if you want to know just how successful the wine wholesalers were at putting the screws to the notion of competition, all you have to know is that the Indiana wholesalers are pretty happy with the outcome. The new law, which…
Thomas over at the Oklahoma Wine News has an excellent post about the wholesalers attempt to kill that state’s growing wine industry by taking away their rights to sell direct to retailers and restaurants. If you are a winery owner and are not yet having to fight this battle yet you probably should start gearig up. The fight is coming to a legislature near you, and soon.
