Archive for the ‘Three Tier System’ Category
The recent disclosure that Amazon.com is seeking to hire an alcohol policy lobbyist has led a number of folks to wonder if, speculate on and predict that, the retail giant is planning a move into alcohol sales and fulfillment. The interest is warranted given the impact that Amazon can have on an industry when it trains its interest on a service or product sector. The complicated nature of alcohol law and its regulation isn’t lost on the Amazon gang. Reading…
Why are consumers so rarely consulted when it comes to public policy issues that so directly impact them? This is a question I used to pose in this forum more often than I have recently. However, a recent event motivates me to return to this question. Connecticut recently held a hearing on House Bill 7184. This is an “omnibus” liquor bill that would make a number of changes to alcohol laws in the state. Among the laws that this bill…
Few wine writers live up to their moniker better than Jeff Siegel, who has long called himself “The Wine Curmudgeon”. In addition to sussing out the best and worst value wines, Jeff also regularly comments on the business of wine. In his latest article, 2019 Wine Trends, Siegel paints a disturbing picture of wine in the U.S. However, he also speaks to the upcoming Supreme Court case, Blair v Tennessee and warns that we shouldn’t expect the high court to…
Among the more notable things about this third of three Key Wine Trends For 2018 that I’ve identified is that, unlike the first two, it does not track with broader cultural themes we witnessed this year. The issues of Gender & Wine and Cannabis & Wine are both downstream impacts of important movements within the American culture. The issue of The Courts and Wine is, instead, a description of a movement indicative of the unique classification of alcohol in American…
“I am always surprised when individual wholesalers or their main trade and lobbying group, the Washington DC-based Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America [WSWA,] fails to chime in on key issues.” Liza Zimmerman, correspondent for Wine-Searcher I’m not. After all, when forced to respond to key issues to the wine and spirits industry, wholesalers are forced into a terrible situation: They either must tell the truth of their protectionist ideology (which never goes over well) or lie. That’s not a…
