Archive for the ‘Shipping Wine’ Category
It’s election day. And I’m wondering…what would a responsible wine-industry supporting candidate look like? 1. They would support a liberal guest worker program 2. They would support moderate, but not excessive taxes on alcohol 3. They would support state or federal research on grapegrowing 4. They would support laws that allow any winery anywhere to sell direct to anyone and any business anywhere. (Free trade and the dismantling of the three tier system) 5. They would support "Brown Bag" laws…
I wish I was a lawyer sometimes because I’ll often read something concerning a lawsuit and just not understand the intent of it. Take a recently filed suit in Oklahoma. In 2000 OK voters approved a new law that allowed OK wineries to sell their wines directly to OK restaurants and retailers, rather than being forced to sell their wines to a middleman wholesaler, who would then sell to the restaurants and retailers. Fast forward to 2006. Earlier this year…
There is a temptation to believe that politics is corrupt, period. There’s even good reason to believe that one lobbyist and one lobbying organization is just like the other. They do their darnedest to pay for results. It’s just not true. Some lobbying groups and some industries are more powerful by many degrees than most other industries. The Wine Distribution industry is just such an industry. The Portland Oregonian has published a story detailing the corrupt relationship between Oregon’s wine…
There are those of you out there who follow the wrangling, legal and otherwise, in the battle across the country over direct shipment of wine to consumers. The legal issues are pretty arcane. But for those who do take an interest in this the there has been a lot of very interesting movement in the direct shipping legal landscape. In my estimation no one is covering this issue better than Ship Compliant Blog. These folks are in the business of…
Back in the day, Family Winemakers of California was a fairly radical organization relative to the other winery associations that existed in the United States. This radical posture was due in large part to the leaders of the organization (Brice Jones (Sonoma Cutrer), Bill MacIver (Matanzas Creek Winery), Patrick Campbell, Laurel Glen), all huge advocates for the concerns of small wineries and family farmers. In fact, the birth of Family Winemakers of California came after an exodus of small and…
