Archive for the ‘Three Tier System’ Category

Aug 3, 2021

The Real Threat of Counterfeit Wine From Wholesalers

Over the past five years or so some members of the alcohol beverage industry have voiced concern that counterfeit alcohol is such a potential problem that increased vigilance is necessary to keep unlicensed and counterfeit products from entering the supply chain and eventually making their way to the consumer. While America’s wine, beer, and spirit wholesalers have been most vocal in warning of this potential problem, what has gone unsaid is that it is the wholesaler that is most likely…

Aug 2, 2021

How Grammar Will Have a Multi-Billion Dollar Impact on Wine Sales

Over the past two months, I’ve seen at least four examples of people arguing that banning out-of-state wine retailers from shipping into a state advances a state’s goal of protecting the health and safety of its citizens. The bans on retailer wine shipping do this, it is argued, because it helps keep lower-priced wines out of the states’ markets, which, in turn, lowers consumption of alcohol. This argument leads us to a very important question: What is the difference between…

Jul 15, 2021

Winery’s Use of Fulfillment Houses Is Illegal?

Wineries’ use of fulfillment houses to store, pack, label boxes and prepare wines for shipment to consumers is illegal. Who knew?? Try to imagine the logistic of wine shipping if producers were required by destination states to store, pack and arrange shipments of wine to consumers from their own bonded facilities, instead of contracting with fulfillment houses. How much more expensive would this make DTC shipping? How much more space would wineries and bonded facilities require to undertake shipments? Sound…

Jun 29, 2021

The American Wine Industry…What If?

What if at the end of 2022 it turns out wine sales have dipped below the pre-pandemic 2019 level? What if wealth inequality is unchecked and reaches levels higher than we’ve ever seen? What if more fires impact American wine-growing regions by the end of 2022 and test our industry’s ability (and the consumers’) to confront smoke taint? What if the reaction to greater online sales results in fewer wine club memberships? We are still very much in a state…

May 16, 2021

Liars Lied and Killed the Postal Service Wine Shipping Bill?

It’s a felony to lie under oath to Congress. However, it is not against the law to lie to Congress in a letter to its members. This is the only reason why the heads of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers Association, the American Beverage Licensees and the American Distillers Alliance have not been brought up on federal charges. As part of their successful attempt to kill the amendment to the U.S. Postal Service Reform Act…