Archive for the ‘Wine Legal Battles’ Category
As far as I can tell, Wine & Spirits Daily is the only publication to take notice of the fact that the multi-state wholesaler Southern Wine & Spirits has chosen not to appeal a decision in the 8th Circuit Court of appeals that went against them. In that decision, the Court ruled against Southern, which claimed that Missouri’s restrictive residency requirements for wholesalers violated the Dormant Commerce Clause. Notably, Southern relied on the important 2005 Granholm V. Heald Supreme Court…
In 2010, important portions of the Massachusetts direct wine shipping law were ruled unconstitutional by the First Circuit Court of Appeals. This ruling along with various unworkable provision in the original law made the remaining portion of the wine shipping regulation unworkable. Massachusetts wine consumers had been left in the cold. The first attempt to fix the faulty law failed when the bill meant to achieve this goal never got out of committee. Yesterday, in the Massachusetts Statehouse, a new…
Why do wine and beer wholesalers deliver up more campaign contributions than all wineries, distillers, brewers and retailers combined? Are the middlemen wholesalers more generous? Do they have money to burn? Do they have more to lose in the arena of politics? I think clearly the answer is, Yes. But most importantly is the issue of what they have to lose. Below is a list of total contributions to state (not federal) candidates and state ballot initiatives for the past…
The list is already quite long but it appears that lawmakers in Michigan have one more way to screw wine lover in that state. Representative Jim Stamas has introduced a bill that would (finally) give MI wine consumers the ability to bring a bottle of their own wine into a restaurant to consume with their meal. However, the law REQUIRES that restaurants charge diners AT LEAST a $25 corkage fee for the privilege. AT LEAST $25. Since when is the…
USA Today outlines the incredible explosion of Craft Beer. There are 2,500 breweries in the U.S. And, USA Today reports, there are another 1,600 in the planning stages in 2013. Sales of independent craft brewers were up 15% over last year. A total of 7.3 million barrels of craft beer will be sold this year. 4.4 million were sold in 2009. Does this sound familiar? It should if you were part of the wine industry in the late 1980s and…
