Archive for the ‘Shipping Wine’ Category
The state of Indiana has a new organization that is trying to draw attention to the remarkably anti-competitive and monopolistic laws that wine wholesalers there have bought to protect themselves from having to compete in a free market. The new organization calls itself Vinsense and they are telling it exactly as it is. One of the most telling failures of Indiana’s wholesaler-controlled monopoly on wine sales is spelled out in this simple comment on the Vinsense web page: "The wholesalers…
"The essential definition of corruption in a representative democracy is the usurpation of public authority to the advancement of private interests."HOWARD WOLF Howard Wolf is the public’s representative on the Texas Sunset Commission, a state body gathered together to examine alcohol regulation in Texas. This is a man with no interest at all in anything having to do with the alcohol industry. When he examines the state of alcohol regulation in Texas he comes to the solid conclusion that it…
There is a bill on the table in, of all places, Georgia that if passed by the Assembly there and signed by Governor Perdue would make that state among the more liberal in the area of direct shipment of wine. The new bill reads in part:"Notwithstanding any other provision of this title to the contrary, any person currently licensed in this or any other state as a winery or a manufacturer, wholesale dealer, importer, or retail dealer of wine who…
WineBusiness.com pointed me toward a very interesting article by Wines & Vines magazine that explored a survey that publication had conducted with wineries on the issue of direct-to-consumer shipping. Direct-to-consumer shipment of wine is by far the most exciting sales channel and the most quickly developing channel for sales in the wine business. The article in Wines & Vines indicates that in general wineries are happy with their efforts in this area and generally happy with the results. However, it…
News is out that the MKF Research Study on the American Wine Industry demonstrates that wine and grapes contribute more than $162 Billion to the American economy. Pretty staggering! There is so much interesting information in this report it’s hard to really talk about it all. So I want to focus on one piece of interesting information: Between 2000 and 2005 the number of wineries in the United States increase from 2,904 to 4,929: A 70% INCREASE in the number…
