“Patience” and “persistence” are our watchwords these days as we look at the direct shipping scene. We regret to inform our wine customers in Ohio that, beginning October 1st, we no longer will be able to ship to them. The Ohio legislature, in its ‘wisdom’, has enacted a law prohibiting wineries over a “production cap limit” of 30,000 gallons from shipping directly to consumers.
Other states, including Arizona, Kentucky and Massachusetts, have enacted similar production cap limits. We believe these laws are a form of economic discrimination and therefore unconstitutional and bad for consumers. We are part of a group that has already filed a lawsuit against the state of Massachusetts over the issue and hope to get a ruling sometime next spring.
Part of what we have learned through the events in Ohio is that we as a winery, and you as consumers, must stay alert and be willing to take action to protect our rights. Ohio was particularly disappointing because a previous court ruling there had established our right to ship to consumers before the wholesalers’ lobby got active and had legislation passed that rescinded that right in order to protect their monopoly. We fail to see how this legislation addresses the legitimate concerns a state may have regarding direct shipping of wine, such as tax collection or protecting minors from access to alcohol. How much a winery produces certainly does not affect either issue.
Those of you in Wisconsin should by now have received emails from Cakebread asking you to take action on similar legislation pending in your state. We’re not certain how the legislation will turn out as it is included in a state budget bill, which typically is hammered out in back room deals with various power players. Many of our customers have written their elected representatives to express their opinions on this matter. We hope your voices are heard.
On the good news front, we are working to establish an East Coast warehouse from which to ship our wines to those of you on the East Coast (especially in New York), which will reduce your shipping charges. We’ll provide further details as the system comes on line.
To learn more about your state’s direct shipping laws, visit www.wineinstitute.org/programs/shipwine and click on the Direct Shipping Map. You can also go to www.FreetheGrapes.org to sign up to recieve email updates on direct shipping developments in your state.
