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Government Affairs
CARE (Community Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness)
HR 1161—Fortunately the House of Representatives has had
other topics before it recently and th e so-called CARE Act
hasn’t gotten out of co mmittee. Despite its name, this bill
presents a direct threat to direct shipping of wine to consumers
and could trump the existing state laws that allow such
shipments.
Massachusetts—Unfortunately, little progress has been
made on adopting HB 1029, which would permit winery direct
shipping into the state. The bill conforms to the Family Winemakers
of CA v. Jenkins ruling that overturned an onerous
capacity cap. Wineries that produced more than 30,000 gallons
per year were prohibited from shipping directly to MA,
which excluded 98% of the US wine production. HB 1029
removes the capacity cap and attempts to resolve a licensing
issue with the common carriers (FedEx, UPS) that has prevented
wine from being shipped directly to consumers under
the current statute.
New Jersey – Following the US Court of Appeals ruling that
declared “satellite” tasting rooms illegal, legislation has been
introduced to restore “satellite” tasting rooms and allow limited
direct wine shipments to consumers. Unfortunately both
S.2782 and A.4303 include capacity caps that would not allow
consumers to receive direct shipments from 90% of the wine
producers. This type of cap was declared unconstitutional in
January 2010 in the Family Winemakers of CA v. Jenkins case
in Massachusetts.
Pennsylvania—New legislation (SB 790) was introduced in
March that would change the existing law, approved in 1951,
that prohibits direct shipping into the Commonwealth. Since
then 3 other bills have been introduced on the same topic. All
4 bills are similar to direct shipment laws in place in the majority
of states that a llow winery direct shipping to consumers.
Among other provisions, these bills require wineries and
retailers to purchase a s tate-issued shipping license, to pay
PA taxes, to mark boxes as requiring signature at delivery,
and to limit the quantity of wine shipped to individuals.
Washington voted overwhelmingly to end the state’s 78-
year monopoly on liquor sales by about a 6 0% majority in
November. The number of spirits retailers is expected to
more than quadruple. The new law will now put spirits on the
shelves of Cos tco’s nearly 30 stores a cross Washington. Retailers
will now be permitted to purchase directly from suppliers,
so Costco can effectively act as its own distributor.
Washington must now sell off its Sea ttle-area central warehouse
and inventory, and also auction off its 328 retail stores,
about half of which are st ate-run. Contractors operating the
franchised stores must buy back their inventory in order t o
continue doing business. Private sales of liquor are s et to
begin on June 1, 2012.
For more information,
visit
www.freethegrapes.org
AWS News—December 2011
Competition News
Lynne Montgomery
This edition will be s hort – still very busy with
final things to be done following the great 2011
Rochester Conference. As those of us who have
been working all year preparing, listening, and gathering expected,
there were pros and cons to be sure. With MUCH
hard work we increased both numbers and awards g iven for
both the Amateur and Co mmercial competitions – c lose to a
25% increase for Commercial entries. W ith most co mpetitions
losing numbers, we feel pretty d arned proud of our efforts.
My very great thanks to the committees of M artha
Gioumousis, Joe Dautlick, Lorraine Hems and Harvey Reissig,
as well as the few other hard working volunteers. Thanks to
David Falchek, who spent many hours over the past months
to achieve this increase. In addition, the behind the computers
team of Alice and Ethan Irwin, Larry Lavery and Linda
Schuler did a super job of coordinating all the techie things
that make events run smoothly. Kudos to the Cellar Rats including
the warehousing team of Dolores and K en Fanton,
Linda Lavery, Deb Huckle, Gail Eyer, Wanda Wood and Chuck
DiFasi. Finally, the on site folks who kept things moving for 3
days that include d all those already mentioned as well as a
dozen or so more, including those strolling by who vo lunteered
to help! Our goal is to continue to increase the participation
in both these events.
It’s no surprise to those of us clo se to the organization that
there is still more to do and areas i n need of seriou s attention.
We have been and are at work. Now get ready
to celebrate the coming holidays – with wine!
Monty
DirectorCompetitions@AmericanWineSociety.org
New Members by State from 1/1/2011
AL 9 NJ 41
AZ 13 NM 9
CA 128 NV 11
CO 47 NY 130
CT 30 OH 28
FL 64 ONT 9
GA 14 PA 187
IL 8 RI 4
IN 6 SC 19
KY 14 TN 3
MA 28 TX 78
MD 23 VA 57
MI 12 WA 4
NC 25 Other* 14
ND 10 TOTAL 1032
*DE, Bogata, Brazil, Korea, MN, MO, NE, OR, Japan,
UT
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