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Saturday, January 13, 2007

Ind. Law - "Don’t mean to whine, but fix law"

"Don’t mean to whine, but fix law." That is the headline to an "Uncorked" column by Dan and Krista Stockman in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes:

Last year was a crazy whirlwind of court opinions, lawsuits, proposed legislation, lobbying and deal-making, all of it related to wine and how Hoosiers are allowed to buy it.

Here’s the short version: A U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that states that allow their own wineries to ship wine directly to consumers but not outside wineries are breaking the law. Wine lovers rejoiced, thinking they would be able to buy directly from small wineries that don’t have national distribution systems. Instead, every state tackled the level-playing field requirement differently, and the national picture is more confusing than ever.

In Indiana, wineries proposed a law that would let them ship directly to customers – as they had been doing for decades – only to have it gutted and co-opted by the liquor lobby, which had it changed to prohibit wineries from shipping at all. Eventually, a compromise was reached, allowing in-state and out-of-state wineries to ship directly to Hoosier wine drinkers if they jump through several hoops.

How many hoops? Too many to keep at least one winery in business: Terre Vin Winery, in Rockville north of Terre Haute, closed recently. The Tribune-Star says a sign at the winery cites the new law as one of the reasons for closing, and the winery’s Web site says the law “imposes time-consuming and expensive regulations on the wineries if they want to ship their wines. As a very small winery, we don’t have the staff and time to keep all the required records.”

So our wish for the new year is this: legislation that makes sense.

There is much more to this exellent column; take a look.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 13, 2007 07:55 PM
Posted to Indiana Law