Archive for January, 2006
Colorado bill passes House Finance Committee
January 28th, 2006
In their effort to become compliant with the Granholm decision, Colorado introduced a limited direct bill that would ease restrictions on shipping wine. Currently, consumers in Colorado can not make offsite purchases from wineries unless they have visited that winery in the past. The new legislation would remove this previous visit requirement.
Kansas revisits wine shipping laws
January 25th, 2006
A pending bill in the Kansas Legislature would prohibit the direct shipment of wine to consumers altogether. Currently, Kansas in-state wineries can sell directly to consumers, but out-of-state wineries are required to use the three-tier system. This uneven treatment was deemed unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court in May 2005. As a result of the ruling, states can essentially either allow direct shipments from all US wineries or prohibit all direct shipments. So far, Kansas seems to be leaning towards prohibition.
Romney introduces new bill
January 18th, 2006
After vetoing a bill passed by the Massachusetts House and Senate in January, Governer Milt Romney introduced his own bill that would allow for “unrestricted wine sales” while providing mechansims for preventing the sale of wine to minors.
Proposed legislation in Illinois would limit off-site sales
January 17th, 2006
Following up on our previous post, small wineries are once again crying foul in Illinois over legislation introduced by the Illinois distributor lobby. The bill would require an initial on-site purchase before off-site sales can be made and would establish a customer aggregate volume limit of two cases per year. Illinois wineries are taking issue with both the previous visit requirement as well as the customer aggregate volume limit. Fred Koehler, president of Lynfred Winery calls the two case limit “ridiculous” and estimates that they could lose up to 15-20 percent of revenues under the bill.
Let the wine flow in Illinois
January 15th, 2006
Editorial from the Chicago Tribune:
If lawmakers are going to get back in the wine game, they should promote competition and protect consumers from unnecessary middlemen and their markups. Otherwise, stay out.
