A federal judge has ruled that a Massachusetts law banning almost all direct sales by out-of-state wineries to in-state consumers is unconstitutional. (Warning: PDF link)
This is great news for everyone except the big alcohol wholesalers who got exclusive government-mandated rights essentially to impose a tax on wine sales. What this means is that we will soon be able to buy those local wines from smaller wineries throughout the country. My first purchase will be some Bettinelli Vineyards wine, I think.
Then I wouldn’t stay ticked at my fellow residents for voting down beer and wine sales at supermarkets and convenience stores. At least ticked so much.
Photo credit: Flickr user Joe Pitz. Used under a Creative Commons license.
This is great. Now I can join the wine of the month club… The whole voting down of the beer and wine sales thing, while admittedly annoying, didn’t affect me so much apparently, since we live so close to NH. The Hannaford grocery store in Lunenberg already sells beer, wine and liquor…
This is a huge step towards cutting out the middleman and getting in those insider clubs.
It may take some more time though, larger producers, that own a lot of really good small wineries, don’t want to jeopardize their relationships with MA wholesalers. Smaller wineries may not know they can ship to MA and probably don’t produce enough to worry about the MA market, the appeals, misc restrictions, and the inevitable pending legislation.