Growing Battle on Anti-Consumer Wine Reguations

Today, the New York Post ran my article on regulations against wine sales in grocery stores. Unfortunately, New York’s silly regulations are just the tip of the iceberg. Last week, the Colorado legislature rejected a bill to allow limited grocery store sales of wine there. The prospects for a ballot initiative in the state on the topic remain unclear. Dozens of other states also have similar bans.

To top things off, legislation in Congress threatens to limit direct-to-consumer shipping of wine from wineries to consumers. A coalition has formed to address the later issue, thanks in good measure to Tom Wark, blogger at Fermentation and executive director for the Specialty Wine Retailers Association and others. Hopefully, this bill will serve more as a wake-up call to consumers about the absurdity of our wine laws and the need to reform them–on all levels.