Written by new DCist food and wine contributor Michael Mugmon.
In the spirit of SportsCenter, DCist asks: DID YOU KNOW that United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has moonlighted as a jurist on the 12-member judging panel for the annual International Wines for Oysters Competition –- the gold medal winners of which are trotted out at Old Ebbitt Grill’s Oyster Riot?
In past years, Justice Scalia –- who quietly campaigned to replace William Rehnquist as Chief Justice –- has swirled, sniffed and sipped his way through dozens of oyster-friendly wines for your pairing pleasure. So, if you’ve admired the New Zealand sauvignon blanc you drank with your briny Malpeques at a past Oyster Riot, you might thank the man who was recently overlooked for nomination to the Defense Against the Dark Arts job that he so coveted.
Indeed, Nino’s rabid oenophilia probably explains why he abandoned his states’ rights credo to join with an oddly formulated Supreme Court majority last May to strike down certain state laws that prohibited wineries in one state from shipping directly to customers in another. DCist suspects that Justice Scalia valiantly wants to ensure that all Americans, wherever they live, will one day have direct access to pricey hooch from patriotically named wineries such as Screaming Eagle and Pride Mountain.
As things stand locally, the general District rule is that a resident may import up to one quart of wine per month from a winery outside of the District, and Virginia permits residents to import two cases (typically, 24 standard bottles) per month from any out-of-state winery that holds a Virginia wine shipper’s license. In Maryland, direct shipment to your doorstep is completely verboten. Such laws banning direct shipment from out-of-state wineries remain constitutional where a state simultaneously prohibits direct shipment from in-state wineries –- which Maryland does.
If you’d like to reap the benefits of Justice Scalia’s most important opinions, there’s still time to purchase tickets to November’s Oyster Riot. Saturday’s tickets are sold out and Friday’s aren’t far behind, so act quickly to get your slurp on.
