Jun 23, 2006
Is Wine.com necessary? I mean to ask, does the Internet really need Wine.com the wine store? Apparently someone thinks so. It appears that Wine.com will receive another $12 Million in venture funding, a seventh visit to that trough that has been filled with upwards of $200 Million over the past 8 years or so. In addition, it appears Wine.com is getting yet another CEO. And in all this time, after all this money, after all the fine leaders of the…
Jun 16, 2006
Just a reminder to those reading FERMENTATION that there is a cadre of folk who help the FERMENTATION Cause. Check them out. Visit their websites and businesses. They include: K&L WINE MERCHANTSA fantastic wine retailer located in the San Francisco Bay Area and on the Internet. They recently got serious props from the Wall Street Journal for just about everything they do in the store and on the Net. INERTIA BEVERAGE GROUPThe industry experts on how to sell wine on…
Jun 2, 2006
The Wine & Spirit Wholesalers Association (WSWA) has spruced up and augmented its team of people who will fight to keep wine lovers having access only to wines wholesalers get a cut of and fight to put wineries at the mercy of wholesalers. Among the new additions to the national association that represents wine wholesalers is Dawson Hobbs, who has been hired as Vice President of State Affairs. According to WSWA Hobbs will "educate state officials about issues surrounding the…
Apr 24, 2006
Well, it’s done. A Federal Judge in Washington State has completely dismantled the state-mandated three tier system in that state. The "Costco ruling" comes about 72 years too late. However, with this ruling and the legislature’s recent work that allows all wineries across the country to go around the middleman wholesalers we are about to learn a very valuable lesson: A state’s wholesalers and a state’s smaller wine industry will in fact survive without a law mandating all wineries sell…
Apr 6, 2006
The state of Minnesota has long been the winner of the "most creative way to protect wine wholesalers and screw consumers" award. With a recent judicial ruling the state can no longer claim that title. In 1998 Minnesota enacted regulations that prohibited any winery in the country from advertising to Minnesotans that their wine was available direct from the winery and prohibiting Minnesotans from ordering wine via the Internet. Monday those regulations were determined to be unconstitutional. The ruling states…