Wine Wholesalers Won’t Be Hiring Us

Posted by Tom Wark on Apr 24, 2006

Well, it’s done.

A Federal Judge in Washington State has completely dismantled the state-mandated three tier system in that state.

The "Costco ruling" comes about 72 years too late.

However, with this ruling and the legislature’s recent work that allows all wineries across the country to go around the middleman wholesalers we are about to learn a very valuable lesson:

A state’s wholesalers and a state’s smaller wine industry will in fact survive without a law mandating all wineries sell only through wholesalers.   It will take a few years for this to be clear. But it will become clear. And as this is proven, we consumers will also discover that without the state mandating wine go through a wholesaler, our choices will be more plentiful.

It will be interesting to see if any wine wholesalers issue any sort of statement. It will be even more interesting if the reactionary national association for wholesalers, Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association (WSWA), releases a statement. I can see it now:

"we are disappointed that the judge did not respect the clear message of the 21st Amendment and blah blah blah blah…"

Wouldn’t it be nice if the WSWA instead issued a statement that made sense and was honest:

"Our rationale for trying to restrict sales and deprive consumers of choice in the realm of wine has been exploded in a perfectly reasonable ruling by the judge. We have no leg to stand on now and will work closely with state legislatures across the country to liberalize wine sales with the hope that consumers will now be able to obtain the wines they want unfettered by our desire to maintain a state-sponsored monopoly."

I somehow doubt that Wark Communications will be getting any consulting work from WSWA anytime soon.