Posts Tagged ‘direct shipping’
Family Winemakers of California is best known as the host of the most diverse and comprehensive wine tasting in America: The annual Family Winemakers Tasting in San Francisco. Yet, the organization’s true mission is to support smaller, family-owned wineries. That was the mission when a small group of vintners such as Bill MacIver of Matanzas Creek Winery, Brice Jones of Sonoma Cutrer and Patrick Campbell of Laurel Glen, all dissatisfied with the orientation of the California Wine Institute, choose to…
Continuing FERMENTATION’s look at money, wine and politics, we turn in this post to the money spent on political campaigns at the state level. It is here, in the individual states, where nearly all legislation and regulations concerning alcohol, its production, its sales and its distribution is undertaken. Between 2004 and 2006, contributions to state level political campaigns from beer, wine and spirit concerns totaled $21,362,727. The overwhelming majority of this money comes from distributors and wholesalers of alcohol. This…
Yea…Michigan State officials are throwing a real hissy fit. They are apparently upset with the costs they are obligated to pay the attorneys that beat them at the Supreme Court last year in the Granholm v. Heald wine decision. Their tantrum boils down to this: They don’t like what it cost their opponents to beat them. Among their claims is that it was unnecessary to bring in Kathleen Sullivan, Dean of Stanford law School, to write the "merits brief" as…
I’ve recently come across one of the most bizarre suggestions yet as relates to the issue of shipping wine directly to consumers. In Florida, the state Senate is looking to formalize their decision to allow direct shipping of wine to its residents. As expected wine wholesalers and their friends in the Senate are attempting to put restrictions on the legislation that amount to a "Wholesaler Protection Act." The current idea is to limit the wineries that can ship to residents…
The most compelling argument that can be made in favor of shutting down direct shipping from wineries to consumers and retailers is not that minors might get their hands on alcohol. It’s that out-of-state wineries might evade paying state taxes and the state would lose important revenue. Have you ever seen the reaction of a state agency or state legislator when faced with the prospect of having less money to play with. It’s the mother bear syndrome. Get out of…
