Photo by ellievanhoutte.

Look, it’s no secret that Maryland’s laws governing booze are ludicrous, featuring a rigidity rivaled only by Pennsylvania and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One particularly Puritanical section of the law does not allow tax-paying, law-abiding Marylanders to have wine shipped to their homes. Thankfully, there appear to be more level-headed individuals among those who produce and enjoy a good Pinot than in the state’s General Assembly.

The Baltimore Sun reported yesterday that wine-lovers and wine producers are going all in on a reform measure which would simplify the overly-convoluted manner in which wine gets from a vineyard to a glass in the Old Line State. (Similar legislation failed to get out of committee in 2008.) Predictably, there’s a quite a bit of hot air being blown about the Assembly as to a) how such a measure would make it easier for minors to obtain some Cabernet and b) that there’s more important things for the Assembly to address.

Any state’s legislative body will always have more pressing issues on its plate, sure. That’s hardly an excuse to stall progress. But the somebody think of the children! excuse is about as lame as it gets. After all, how many sixteen-year-old kids do you know that are looking to drop a few hundred to get loaded on a dozen bottles of some fine Bordeaux? Once you realize that there’s a lot of distributors out there who make very good money as the middleman between you and the product, the real purpose behind such ballyhooing becomes a whole lot clearer.

Of course, if Maryland does pass the connoisseurs’ proposal, it would strike a serious blow for those of us in the District who have gotten accustomed to taking a cut of every wine shipment that we find funneling through our addresses to thirsty Maryland residents. Bah, a sacrifice in the name of greater liberty, I suppose.