Maryland
UPDATE: MARYLAND BILLS KILLED AFTER GOOD FIGHT. Annapolis, Maryland.

Senate Bill 616 and House Bill 1260, based on the model direct shipping bill in effect in the majority of U.S. states, were heard in committee but died there during the 2008 legislative session. Both bills received widespread consumer support, while media coverage focused on wholesaler influence in the state. The bills would have significantly improved consumer choice in wine by allowing any winery or retailer licensed by Maryland to ship a limited amount of wine directly to consumers 21 years or older in the state.

Unfortunately, all direct-to-consumer wine shipments continue to be prohibited by Maryland law. The state is one of 15 that do not allow interstate, winery-to-consumer shipments. The shipping bills were endorsed by the Maryland Winery Association, which represents Maryland’s 31 wineries, as well as Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws, a consumer advocacy group. Maryland is the 18th largest state for wine consumption (source: Adams Wine Handbook 2007), and has tried for years to break the wine wholesaler’s iron grip on distribution. - Free the Grapes!
Friday, May 9, 2008 @ 12:55 pm ET

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Florida
UPDATE: CONSUMERS WIN. FLORIDA SESSION ENDS WITHOUT "CAP" BILL -- May 8, 2008. Florida's 2008 legislative session concluded without passing one of the four discriminatory bills that were introduced. The "no action" is a victory for Florida's wine lovers, allowing them to continue purchasing and receiving wines directly from wineries. As previously reported, four Florida legislators introduced separate bills that included discriminatory caps, preventing wineries producing more than 100,000 cases from continuing to ship directly to consumers.

The bills included:

1) HB 693: Representative Bogdanoff amended her bill to remove the production capacity cap, however, it would have allowed only eight cases to be shipped per household, per year.

2) HB 1293: Representative Garcia’s bill.

3) SB 1736: Senator Geller’s bill.

4) SB 1096: Senator Margolis’ bill.

Thank you to all Floridians who sent letters and called their state legislators to voice their opinions about these bills. - Free the Grapes
Friday, May 9, 2008 @ 12:50 pm ET

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Wisconsin
WISCONSIN CONSUMERS WIN: FREE THE GRAPES TOASTS LEGISLATURE -- March 24, 2008. On March 13, Governor Doyle signed Senate Bill 485, which replaces the state's current reciprocal law on October 1, 2008. Prior to passing the new law, Wisconsin was one of only three remaining "reciprocal shipping states," a type of free trade network that had allowed only wineries in participating states to make shipments. As states like WA, OR and other key markets changed over to permits, WI consumers have found it harder to locate wineries under the old law. Now, all US wineries will be eligible to puchase a permit and ship a limited amount of wine directly to Wisconsin consumers, significantly improving consumer choice in wine. - Free the Grapes!
Monday, March 24, 2008 @ 12:53 pm ET

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New Mexico
FINAL UPDATE: SB59 STALLS IN HOUSE Feb 15, 2008 - Albuquerque, New Mexico. Senate Bill 59 passed the Senate Saturday but did not reach the House floor before the state's 4-week legislative session concluded February 14. The bill would have replaced the current reciprocal language with the model permit bill. As previously mentioned here, Senate Bill 59 was endorsed by the board of the New Mexico Wine Growers Association, and received favorable testimony from the New Mexico Restaurant Association and the New Mexico Retailers Association. - Free the Grapes!
Friday, February 15, 2008 @ 7:55 pm ET

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Massachusetts
Here's a comment from a consumer supporter that warrants a separate entry:

"Mass wine lovers: let's organize and fight discrimination against consumer choice in Mass. As you know our legislature passed a distribution-backed Orwellian direct shipping law that basically allows me to buy wine I don't want and won't allow me to buy what I do want. The salt in the wound on this one is the fact that the wine I want to buy direct IS NOT AVAILABLE via distribution.

I called my new legislator, a twenty something young man who said to me (!), "there is so much wine available at the liquor store, why don't you drink some of that"...the arrogance in his assertion that we should be happy with limited choice maddens me, but his ignorance of wine is no surprise when you elect a kid to the legislature. He furthered my impression of his ineptitude by resonding to my comment that he has gotten a lot of support from the distribution lobby with, "a lot of people give me money and get nothing in return". No surprise how I will vote when he is up for re-election.

Please post your experiences...have you called your reps for help and gotten nowhere? Are you waiting for the lawsuit to make some progress? How can we organize and fight this lethal combination of arrogance/ignorance in our state house?

My cellar is suffering...let's do something about it!"

Submitted By: Dave Wimberly [david.wimberly@sabic-ip.com] - Free the Grapes!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007 @ 6:32 pm ET

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