February 19, 2008
Maryland Could Start Allowing Wine Shipping
Maryland, like most other states, has some arcane laws still on the books (cf. Virginia's code outlawing the mixing of wine or beer with spirits), but none irks area oenophiles more than the one that prohibits the shipping of wine into or out of the state. The Post reports today that a bill proposed by two Montgomery County legislators would finally change all that.
The Maryland legislature's House Economic Matters Committee met yesterday to hear testimony for and against such a change in the law. Most arguments for allowing wine shipments focused on the idea that it's a silly, Prohibition-era law that no longer makes any sense. Most arguments against the change came from local Maryland distributors and retailers, who feared losing money should their ability to be the only ones to sell wine in the state suddenly disappear.
Indeed, we've known some Maryland residents who work here in D.C., where it is legal to order wine and have it shipped to you, who have had California wine delivered to their offices and then carried it home on Metro. Virginia also allows wine shipping.
Seems like a no-brainer to us. Competition is the whole point of capitalism, and the fact that nearby Virginia and D.C. already made the shipping of wine legal makes the argument to protect local Maryland distributors sound all the more ridiculous.
Photo by justinramsdell
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Definitely works if you're shipping to DC...probably MD, too. The guarantee applies to Customs issues, too.
But if we allow that, it will destory traditional marriage. Oh, wait, that is about something else.
Funny you should mention it, a steady supply of wine is the only thing keeping my traditional marriage together.
DC does not in reality allow open wine shipment...it depends on myriad things I don't fully understand, but a lot depends on the license the sender has and how they fudge things on their end. Thanks, reciprocity laws, for being so convoluted. The recent laws stating that you have to allow out-of-state shipping to allow in-state shipping only really affected states with a wine industry, like Virginia...DC has no wine industry to fight for that.
DC technically only allows one shipped bottle of wine per month per person, so any shipments of more than that will require some subterfuge, a certain type of distribution license on the other end, or some other sort of magic to get wine sent to you.
Personal experience: I am a member of one winery that pretends I am 'at the winery' every month, and that is the only way they can ship to me in DC. I have two other wineries that I have to have send to Virginia since they can't ship here, and there is a wine shop in SF that does ship to DC (they have the right license).
Anyway, DC is not really all that when it comes to wine shipment.
I somewhat recall a Supreme Court decision a few years ago, fought by some lady who owned a winery in Virginia, that I thought said that these kinds of restrictions on wine shipments were unconstitutional.
I know you can't swing a dead cat in this town without hitting three lawyers, so any of you know any details about that, and what the difference is here?
I am not a lawyer and have had a few glasses of wine tonight, but that's probably the law I mentioned above...in 2005, the SC ruled that allowing in-state wine shipments while not allowing out-of-state shipments was discriminatory and in favor of local/state wineries, and thus unconstitutional.
This was cool, and seemed like a big deal, but it only has played out like this...states that have in-state wineries and a history of allowing in-state shipments started allowing both in- and out-of-state shipments because the in-state wineries threw a fit when they became faced with not being able to ship their wines, and they lobbied hard to maintain that right. Thus states with pretty big in-state wine production, like New York, Michigan, and Virginia, started allowing all shipments.
States like Pennsylvania, who don't allow ANY shipment of wine, in- or out- of state, were not affected, and the same goes for states with no real wine production. If Pennsylvania's wine industry suddenly realizes it could make money shipping, and decides to fight for that, things could get interesting (and good luck to them). It looks like Maryland wineries are waking up to this now (although I don't think Maryland is as backwards as Pennsylvania is about alcohol).
So it seems that it's mostly about fairness and not giving any edge to in-state wineries. You have to treat out-of-state wineries as you would in-state wineries. I am guessing that if you had a DC winery, you wouldn't be able to ship more than one bottle a month to your customers.
If you Google something like "supreme court wine shipping unconstitutional" you can find a few good articles on this. There's also good info at www.freethegrapes.org. And I am willing to be corrected by any real legal types who know more about this than I do and who can explain why the reciprocity/other laws still stand when this Supreme Court decision is in place...possibly because no one has challenged them yet? On one hand, it seems like you should either allow all shipping or allow none....if so, why can states still have these random restrictions? Is it really all just about fairness and not restricting wineries based on location, whereas they can still restrict for other reasons?
The Supreme Court case was Granholm v. Heald, now almost three years ago. I covered it and its impact on Maryland shipping laws - which have relaxed a little, but I would be surprised if this legislation passed. It will be backed by the small wineries in Maryland, but opposed by the wholesaler's lobby, which has considerably more money than the wineries.
About a year ago I did something about the impact of that case on VA and MD after the fact, and VA has tightened its restrictions - including direct shipping.
http://www.winebusiness.com/ReferenceLibrary/webarticle.cfm?dataId=48812
www.grainsngrapes.blogspot.com