One GIANT leap !!!!!!!

[Kcwhippet]

The Massachusetts House did something yesterday that I thought I would never see in my lifetime. They approved a bill to allow wine shipping to consumers, which now goes to the MA Senate. There's an interesting wrinkle to the bill in that this only applies to wineries making less than 50,000 gallons per year (that's about 20,000 cases). The big guys - Mondavi, etc. - who make more than the allowance still have to go through the three tier network, and that's good as far as I'm concerned because the wines I want are made by wineries making less than half the allowance. There's also a rider that allows restaurant patrons to take their unfinished wine home sealed in a plastic bag. Those here from MA keep your fingers crossed that the Senate doesn't screw this up. Here's the full article from the Boston Globe.
[url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/15/house_approves_internet_wine_bill?mode=PF]www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/11/15/house_approves_internet_wine_bill?mode=PF[/url]

[Glass_A_Day]

I'm suprised the "Free The Grapes" site was so agains this bill.

[Kcwhippet]

They were against the original version of H4477, which limited shipment to wineries (both in-state and out-of-state) of 30,000 gallons or smaller. It also had a restriction that any winery that had any wines handled by a distributor within the previous six months couldn't ship. Nashoba and Westport are the largest wineries in the state and they depend quite a bit on in-state customers. However, they're both over the size limit and they're both repped by distributors, so they and their supporters lobbied heavily against those restrictions. That's mainly what Free the Grapes were opposed to, so this version is a bit better - not perfect, but better. I suspect, though, that someone may sue because this bill discriminates against large wineries and therefore is unconstitutional. Oh, I understand the Senate may be getting the bill to vote on as early as today. Sounds like they're fast tracking this one.

[TheEngineer]

Fingers crossed, fingers crossed, fingers crossed......Yeah Baby!!!!

[winoweenie]

Hopefully you'll have enough sane prople in your legislature that this will be a go. We finally got some relief here in Az last year with the help of FTG. WW

[Kcwhippet]

Not sure whether to to be happy or sad. Seems our gov, Mitt Romney, vetoed the wine shipping bill. Here's what he said -

"This bill does not give wine lovers the opportunity to purchase the bottlings they want," the Republican chief executive said in a statement. "It creates artificial barriers to protect Massachusetts wholesalers at the expense of a free market."

Don't know if the legislators, with the WSWA contributions safely in their banks, are going to say "Oh well, we tried" and just go away, or if they're going to try again. I believe they're on winter recess, so whatever they do won't happen for awhile. I do believe they have to do something fairly soon because the current legislation is in conflict with the Supremes' ruling. Romney's a non-drinker for religious reasons, but he has seemed historically to not have let his religious beliefs get in the way of doing the right thing. Guess we'll have to wait and see - again.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 11-22-2005).]

[Thomas]

KC,

Romney's reasoning for the veto seemed sound, until you mentioned that thing about non-drinking for religious reasons.

There are many reasons not to drink alcohol, but I become the wariest when someone uses religion as the reason for not drinking wine--especially if the religion is supposedly Christian.

[This message has been edited by foodie (edited 11-23-2005).]

[Kcwhippet]

Romney's a Mormon, though the reason he gave for the veto has nothing to do with his religious beliefs on the surface. So, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

[Thomas]

KC, here's a story for you.

I have a good friend who many years ago came out as being gay. A few years back, when he had gotten into a relationship with another fellow, my wife and I joined them for dinner at a local restaurant.

When the wine glasses were brought out, my friend's boyfriend announced that he did not drink wine and then said, "I was a Mormon most of my life, and not drinking stayed with me."

Without missing a beat I said, "Apparently that thing about many wives, as in female, did not stay with you."

My wife kicked me, my friend gave me an evil look and the ex-Mormon smiled knowingly.

[brappy]

You just gave me my first chuckle of the day.
[img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Georgie]

Jesus turned water into wine...apparently alcohol did not present a problem with his version of Christianity.

[Thomas]

Georgie,

The name of my winery was Cana Vineyards--the corporate name was the Cana Creation, Inc.

Marriage feast at Cana. I was making a point!

[robr]

Georgie,

Most scholars agree that the water into wine trick was just that, a trick. The ancient Greeks rarely drank wine straight, it was a mixture of a wine concentrate and water, thus giving a low alcohol level. The idea is that Jesus had traveled and knew of these Greek practices, and poured the concentrate into the water, thus converting it into wine.

Of course, this doesn't answer the loaves and fishes miracle.

[Thomas]

Hey Bernkastler, by the time of Jesus, Romans had 100 years earlier usurped the wine world from the Greeks, especially in the Middle East. Greeks, and then Romans, did add seawater (and other things) not only to lower alcohol but to preserve the wines as well.

The story of Cana is that the wedding feast had run out of wine and Jesus was asked to help out--he then produced wine on the spot from water. It is a story, and like all the stories of religion, it is meant to be a metaphor for something larger. The one thing that I take from the story is that wine was important to the culture, and that's all I need to know [img]http://www.wines.com/ubb2/smile.gif[/img]