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Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Ind. Law - Still more on wine shipping

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier Journal has a good wrap-up today on the wine shipping bill, HB 1016. Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS — The Senate seems poised on the session's last day to send the governor a legislative compromise that would let wineries ship directly to customers.

The House last night approved [the conference committee report on] House Bill 1016, which would let wineries ship as many as 24 cases per year to any customer whom they confirm is at least 21 years old. It passed 92-3 but still needs final Senate approval.

The bill would apply to all wineries that sell fewer than 500,000 gallons in Indiana per year. It also limits the amount that a winery could ship in Indiana to no more than 3,000 total cases a year.

The compromise comes after a tumultuous session for wineries that included the House's approval of a bill that in essence eliminated any direct shipment and then the Senate's shelving a plan allowing limited shipments because leaders didn't want to interfere with a pending lawsuit.

The plan has the backing of all 32 of the state's wineries as well as wine wholesalers, who had originally fought direct shipping. * * *

The debate about wineries began last year, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can't treat out-of-state wineries differently from those inside the state.

For years -- even though it wasn't explicitly allowed by law -- the state let Hoosier farm wineries ship bottles directly to in-state customers. However, an out-of-state winery could ship only to Indiana through a distributor to a retailer.

But the Supreme Court decision meant Indiana couldn't ban a direct shipment to an individual Hoosier from a California winery if it permits Huber Orchard and Winery in Starlight to ship to that person.

So the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission decided to stop all direct shipments. Hoosier wineries sued and a judge issued a temporary injunction, permitting the shipments to continue until after the session so lawmakers could debate the issue.

But Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, has a policy against considering bills that would create a winner or loser in legislation. So those wineries have agreed to drop their suit if the bill passes.

"If passed, this bill will help make it possible for Indiana's farm wineries to continue to operate and prosper," said Larry Satek, president of the Indiana Winegrowers Guild. "There are still challenges up ahead, but this bill today is a step in the right direction."

Yesterday, Garton said that decision by the wineries makes the Senate vote possible. The lawsuit was "the only reason we held it up."

The Indianapolis Star also has a report on the wine shipping bill half-way through this story. A quote:
The tentative deal represents a compromise between Indiana's wineries and distributors * * *. Had they not, a court could have taken a more extreme action -- by either outlawing wine shipments or allowing them on an unlimited basis.

"There's the old saying that you deal with the devil that you know as opposed to the devil that you don't know," said Sen. Brent R. Steele, R-Bedford, who was active on the wine legislation.

"No one wants to roll their dice in the court system, and I think that was the impetus to try and reach an agreement on this."

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 14, 2006 08:02 AM
Posted to Indiana Law