Buying Wine on The Internet in Every State

[Jerry D Mead]

As simple as it sounds...and as simple as the wholesaler scam sounds...neither one will work for many wines.

Some states have laws that if a wholesaler reps your wine one time he has "franchise" right on that brand and no one else can sell it ever. No small winery will risk being married to a wholesaler he doesn't even know who it's going to be.

Or say, it's a small winery which allocates X number of cases to its wholesaler in South Dakota, but has kept some inventory to be sold from its own tasting room. If he sells that wine from his tasting room inventory to a customer in SD, the wholesaler is going to want to know why he didn't get the wine to make his usual mark-up...so the winery is going to say he doesn't have any.

And most states have licensing fee...I guy making Elderberry Wine in Kansas is not going to generate enough sales in any one state to justify buying the license...some of which cost as much as$500 per LABEL. (Now you know why some states have such narrow selections.)

And very often collectables are no longer at the wineries but a specialty retailers...the proposals your talking about do not provide a method to buy from them...or from independent wine clubs.

You can buy every other kind of product via the internet and mails...including prescription drugs and tobacco...why not fermented grape juice? Why should thegovernment permit this one monopoly to exist?

JDM