Massachusetts Lawmakers to Hear Testimony on Wine Direct Shipping, Tuesday, May 10th

Everyone once in a while I get an E-mail I've been waiting a long time for and knock out a blog post immediately. Just now I received this press release from Free the Grapes about an important hearing this coming Tuesday in Massachusetts.

MA HB 1029 would finally, mercifully, allow direct shipment of wine from out of state wineries to Massachusetts residents.

Here's a quick Q&A with Free the Grapes:

WWP: What would you suggest MA wine consumers do to right now to help MA HB 1029 pass and allow direct shipment from out-of-state wineries to MA consumers?

Free the Grapes: We encourage Massachusetts wine lovers to express their support of wine direct shipping in their state by sending letters to the committee?s leadership through our website. Next week we will update the distribution list beyond the committee to include all MA legislators, in order for us to broaden the message. http://capwiz.com/freegrapes/issues/alert/?alertid=34295506

WWP: If the bill passes, how long until direct shipments become a reality?

Free the Grapes: It?s too early to tell. Like in other states, the licensing parameters and common carrier approvals precede issuing winery licenses. To use Maryland as an example, the bill will be signed by the Governor next week on 5/10, but the comptroller?s office is prepping documents and regulations to meet the law?s effective date of 7/1/11. This is common.

WWP: Would the bill allow direct shipments from out of state retailers to MA consumers?

Free the Grapes: No. The bill allows for wine shipments from licensed wineries directly to Massachusetts consumers.

From the press release:

May 6, 2011, Napa, CA ?  On Tuesday, May 10 the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure will hold a public hearing to discuss House Bill 1029. Passage of this bill would mark an end to the state?s archaic ban on wine shipments from licensed wineries directly to Massachusetts consumers, according to Free the Grapes!, the national coalition of consumers, wineries and retailers. www.freethegrapes.org

Hearing Details:

What: House Bill 1029
Who: Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure
When: Tuesday, May 10, 2011; 1:00 PM Eastern Time
Location: Massachusetts State House, Room A-1, 24 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108
Bill Information: http://www.malegislature.gov/bills/187/house/h01029

HB 1029 conforms to the ruling Family Winemakers of California v. Jenkins, which was upheld by the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in January 2010. The lawsuit successfully challenged a 2006 Massachusetts statute banning winery-to-consumer shipments from wineries and wine companies producing more than 30,000 gallons per year, and who retain a wholesaler. The 30,000 gallon capacity cap was ruled to be discriminatory and the legislature was tasked with developing a remedy.

Introduced in February by Representative David M. Torrisi, HB 1029 is similar to the model direct shipping bill that is the foundation for statutes in the majority of U.S. states, providing legal, regulated direct shipping to consumers. Among other provisions, HB 1029 requires wineries to purchase a state-issued shipping license, to mark boxes as requiring an adult signature at delivery, and limits the quantity of wine shipped to individuals to 24 cases per year. The basis for HB 1029, the model direct shipping bill, was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court and supported by the Federal Trade Commission.

Thirty-seven states and Washington D.C. ? but not Massachusetts ? allow licensed wineries to ship directly to consumers ? those states account for 83% of US wine consumption. Massachusetts is the seventh largest wine consumption state in the U.S. however it is one of 17 states that continue to ban winery-to-consumer direct shipments. Maryland Governor O?Malley is scheduled to sign House and Senate Bills later this month to allow winery direct shipping, which will make Maryland the 38th state to allow winery direct shipping.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/s7hQwJrULRk/massachusetts-lawmakers-to-hear.html

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Stop and Smell the Wine

With the New Year and winter’s recalcitrance toward resolutions now giving way to spring and new life, I’ve been contemplating a wine-related information makeover.

Perhaps not so much, “Out with the old, in with the new” as simply an editing of the wine-related information I consume, which is to say:  There’s a lot of it and I need less of it.  It’s a diet, perhaps.

Hastened by the online wine world where over the last five years wine content has become free, easy and inexhaustible, a wine enthusiast can get sucked into a vortex of infinite information that is unwittingly counter to their ethos.

Simply, one morning, under the glare of ashen bathroom lighting, the wine boor that we all hate so much might be staring back at us in the mirror.

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This past week, I knew I might be in too deep, stuck in the trees and not able to see the forest, when I traded emails with some fellow wine writer’s.  The initial query obtusely referenced Antonio Galloni and his new for-profit venture into conducting events as an adjunct to his wine criticism at the Wine Advocate.

“Huh?” You might say with this tidbit entirely missing your radar.  And, that’s exactly my point. 

Less than two months ago a mention of Antonio Galloni would have registered little more than a furtive calculation against the mental file. “Innocuous” would have been an apropos adjective for Galloni.  Now, weeks later, Galloni, Robert Parker, Jr.’s successor, is the subject of top-of-mind conversation based on an interview with wine writer Mike Steinberger at his Wine Diarist blog, which itself is barely two months old.  The reason?  Galloni has set-up a company called All Grapes Media, LLC that is facilitating winemaker dinners with readers of the Wine Advocate (WA) and select wineries that have been reviewed by Galloni and WA.

This has raised questions anew about ethics …

While not the subject of this post per se, what struck me about my email exchange was that all parties on the email knew about this VERY minor revelation.

Regrettably, this smallest of details, which has zero implication on the enjoyment of wine, any wine, is something that people pay attention to, and even postulate about as a frame of reference.

I’m as guilty as anybody.

Yet, we all control our decisions.  Just as Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin famously said, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are” the information we consume says just as much about who we are.

In the meantime, as we wax to drama, and let wine wane, we are living in a Golden Age of the drop – wine that is universally lauded and accessibly priced.  On the market today a wine enthusiast can access a nearly unlimited supply of not just information, but wine, glorious wine.  The ’07 Cabernet vintage from Napa is an all-time great.  The ’09 Rieslings from Germany are stellar.  The ’08 Pinots from Oregon are of incredible quality.

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These are all available to the wine lover who wants to do a bit of research and seek them out.

So, instead of getting into the proverbial weeds of very small wine-related detail, I’m taking just a small step back to enjoy this moment in time to use my information consumption habits to research and seek out wines, allocating some tax refund money to buying up a parcel of Napa Cabs, Oregon Pinot’s and German Rieslings for my cellar.

10-years hence, I won’t remember a small peccadillo about Antonio Galloni and some wine events, but I surely will remember when I had the foresight to buy up some wines that will pay me great dividends in enjoyment in the future.

You should consider doing the same.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/stop_and_smell_the_wine/

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