   |  Wine Shipping Leads to a 12 Step ProgramJanuary 30, 2008 at 12:11 am by john
There's a great article in the NYTimes today about our nation and its interstate wine shipping laws. In 2005, the Supreme Court made it legal for wineries to ship to most states, but not retailers. Retailers can legally only ship to a handful of states and some of those states you can only ship one case a month, other states you have to give the statealcohol control body a list of wines you will be shipping into their state in the future. Last year I tried to explainto the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission that my time machine was broken and that I really didn't know which wines would be heading their way in the future, but that didn't fly. The current laws of alcoholwere born out of prohibition (any of you that have entered CoWineCo with a child have already experienced one of these laws...minors can enter our store but not remain...as if they were going to throw down a sleeping bag and move in). The importer/distributor/retailer model was a way of 'controlling' a seemingly life-threatening substance. Now don't get me wrong, addictions are very serious and alcohol is very different from Sunny-D, but our laws are absurd. In the NYTimes article, Craig Wolf, chairman of the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, says of the dangers of shipping alcohol out of state, "the bottom line is that you whittle away at the system little by little, and what you end up with is what you have in England, where cheap alcohol has led to binge drinking through the roof..." Really? So if I could ship a few bottles of wine to my sisters in Massachusetts for Christmas, I would soon find them splayed out on their front lawns, throwing up while still gripping bottles of neon blue Mad Dog 20/20? Hmmm. The quote makes sense when you consider Craig's position with the wholesalers who stand to lose their grip over the flow of alcohol in our country. Take away the wholesalers and CoWineCo would actually be able to buy from the source, thus lowering prices for the customers. Dear God....what anarchy. If only my time machine were working, I'd give Craig a ride into the future and show him that actually, the vast majority of the country is pretty damn good at deciding when to say when. CLICK HERE for the full article. Leave a comment  Tess Rafferty said:I wonder how the English would feel about his ignorant characterization? Why doesn't he just make fun of their teeth next. Also, I hear they like Benny Hill. January 31, 2008 11:55 AM Kevin Flynn said:I really like the fact that this store tends to be quite a bit more open to discussion with your customers, which is why I keep coming back. But I do want to say that sometimes the comments come off as a bit too self serving for me. Yes, the interstate wine laws are old and probably due for changes, but the discussion about what to do is a bit more complex than, "we wish they were gone so we could make more money". What about all of the people who would be out of jobs for instance? January 31, 2008 1:48 PM Tom said:Uhh- What's to keep me from getting a gallon of Vodka from Ralphs and going to town? Somehow I don't think being able to ship a bottle of viognier to my sister in Massachusetts is going to cause her to roll down that slippery slope into hopeless alcoholism, but lucky for us all the Commonwealth is right there nannying her into sobriety. Because there are no boozers in the Bay State. January 31, 2008 3:35 PM CoWineCo said:To Kevin:That is a good point and I agree with you. But really, this isn't an argument for no control, it's an argument for control and equal opportunity. For instance, CoWineCo would have to pay a $50-$200 fee per state for a permit which would also require us to pay that state's sales tax on everything we ship. However, the distributors dont' go out of business....we can't store 10 palettes of wine. Hell, we can't even store 1 palette of wine in this tiny place, not to mention the fact that wineries aren't all about to build their own trucking fleet. I don't think the damage would be catastrophic, but yes, some people would lose their jobs, retail would hire more people, and the end user (or end drinker) would get a huge variety of wine for cheaper prices. I would say about 3/4 of our store consists of wines you can't get in most states. In fact today, the head of a country club in Florida called because he said we were the only place he could find to buy Mexican wine. We risk a bit carrying such obscure stuff, but benefit when we market ourselves enough that some random dude in Florida finds us online. January 31, 2008 8:30 PM Vin Gallo said:I'm really peeved that every time I pay $15 for CoWineCo tasting, and I get there after 5:30, the Auntie Em cheese platter looks like someone drove a bulldozer through it and there is no cheese left for me. And the platter is not refreshed throughout the evening. What's up with that? 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This is what I love about our administration as a whole - decide what your secret best-interests are, and then disguise them with a fearmongering tactic, set up to freak the public out about yet another thing that will never happen. Good grief.I'll still buy your wine even though it's not direct-from-source. But the day CoWineCo can finally buy direct from the wineries - that will be my day to binge drink! BRING IT ON!
January 31, 2008 11:34 AM