Archive for the ‘Shipping Wine’ Category
After more than 25 years in the wine business, very little shocks me. However, I’m still flabbergasted when I witness a willingness among some to knowingly say the stupidest things. The wine wholesalers have been on a roll this week. In an article in the New York Times investigating the circumstances concerning wine retailers being able to only ship wine to 14 states, the following was said by Craig Wolf, the head of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers Association…and it was…
The announcement yesterday that Amazon was shutting down its Amazon Wine marketplace on December 31 was no surprise. With its purchase of hundreds of retailer licenses via its Whole Foods purchase it would out of compliance with tied house laws of numerous states, including California. A retailer, according to CA alcohol beverage law, may not accept payment from producers for advertising and this is exactly what Amazon was doing with its Amazon Wine site. The question is will Wine Woot…
Does AmazonWine need to disappear because it’s unlawful? Recall that the AmazonWine service is a departure for the behemoth retailer. Wine is not sold by Amazon. Instead, wineries pay what amounts to a listing or advertising fee to display their products on Amazon, but it’s the wineries that actually sell the wine, not Amazon. In fact, AmazonWine was created without Amazon possessing any alcohol retailer licenses. Now, consider a recent ruling in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in California…
Seven years ago, Massachusetts wine shipping law was ruled to be discriminatory and unconstitutional. It took four years for the state to pass a new wine shipping law. Now, three years after that, the state can finish the job. When Massachusetts passed its wine shipping law in 2014, it failed to allow Bay Staters to purchase wine from out-of-state wine stores and retailers, only from out-of-state wineries. The result was a severely flawed law that left thousands and thousands of…
Wine writers and wine bloggers who aspire to both understand and report on the business of wine can’t ignore the politics of wine. Few other businesses are so significantly defined by and impacted by regulations, lobbying and politics. Will consumers have legal access to the products they want? That depends on politics. Will wineries be able to make use of new technologies to distribute their wines more widely? That depends on politics. Will independent and specialty wine retailers have the…
