Silly state

[dananne]

This weekend, the first Trader Joes will open in Atlanta. However, because of stupid alcohol laws passed by our possibly insane legislature, it will open DRY. Retailers are required to buy from authorized wholesalers, and wholesalers can't deal in exclusive brands, so a brand available anywhere has to be made available everywhere. Now, I wasn't about to run out and fill my cellar with Two Buck Chuck, but it would have been nice to have another place to go wine shopping.

Along the same lines, the "Georgia Wine Highway" signs in N. GA, helping tourists navigate the mountain highways to visit local wineries, have been removed. They used an old state law prohibiting "gratuitous signage" on state highways. So, now the winery directional signs have been torn down, and business has dropped markedly, hurting this fledgling industry. This on top of the fact that in-state wine shipments to consumers are banned, and wineries are forbidden to sell their wares off-site, meaning no festival sales, etc.

It's hard sometimes to be a wine lover in GA.