In a decision that could be a huge boon for Washington state’s wine industry, the U.S. Supreme Court today struck down laws in New York and Michigan banning direct shipments of wine from out of state. The 5-4 decision called such laws discriminatory and anticompetitive, and puts in doubt similar laws in 22 other states.
With over 300 wineries, 30,000 acres of vines, and $628 million in retail sales, Washington state now ranks as the number two producer of premium wines nationally, second only to California. The industry creates 11,250 full time jobs, and has an estimated $2.4 billion impact on Washington state’s economy.
The decision could be particularly advantageous to the state’s many small wineries, who do not have the distribution prowess of their larger competitors. Without an interstate ban on direct shipments, a functioning website and some good reviews could open the market to higher margin, direct, national sales.
ok then, keep the democrats out of their business and they can thrive.
Great, I can by wine tax free from other states via the internet! Super!
Goldy,
Just curious, what is the source of those figures on the wine industry?
Good for the vineyards…
People should take advantage of this quick. If history has taught us anything it is that the State and federal Governments will jump on this new tax opportuntiy with a gutso.
Maybe Absinthe can be next!!!
It’s such a pain to order online these days….
pbj @3,
I provided a link in my post. It’s the Washington State Wine Commission.
Oh… and let me just point out folks that I’m not taking a position on this. I’m just pointing out that the decision is probably good for our state wine industry. On the other hand, I do think that states have the right and responsibility to regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol within their borders.
This decision is also going to help Costco in a big way: it can now purchase from out-of-state wineries directly, without going through wholesalers and distributors. I imagine this moots Costco’s suit against the Washington Liquor Control Board.
Does anyone have any suggestions on good red wines from Washington?
Actually this isn’t going to help many people at all.
The decision (as I understand it) is quite narrow.
States can choose to either ban all shipment of wine direct to consumers or they can choose to allow all shipment of wine direct to consumers.
What they cannot do is to chose to ban direct shipment of wine to consumers from out-of-state wineries while allowing shipment direct to consumers from in-state wineries.
The states need to make a choice. But they could chose (as apparently 23 states already have) to simply ban direct sales of wine to consumers.
“Does anyone have any suggestions on good red wines from Washington?”
you’re kidding, right???
If not, please logon to any wine reviews sites–there are many.. including, dare i say, several from CA that rate WA wines highly. Chateau St. Michelle leaped into the wine world w/ a 76 Cabernet that is still rated one of the all time very best. My friends and i wished we hadn’t guzzled our way through so much of it in the early 80’s. It is worth it’s weight in silver.
http://www.ste-michelle.com/index.cfm
But!!!! A nation of winos won’t exactly buy our economy out of the doldrums. The volume of wine produced in the world is astronomical; a not very well stocked wine section at a local market would take a few years of drinking a different bottle of wine each and every single night to complete a tasting. 300 wineries in WA is substantial, yet Australia and Chile are both in the middle of vineyard/winery booms that are comparable. CA produces nearly 72% of US wine and 90% of the US wine exports; we are talking hundreds of millions of gallons. The US per capita consumption of wine is a bit less than 3 gallons per year. Europe’s runs more like 8-15 gallons per year per capita. It is one thing to cheer for looser wine industry sales regulations and higher WA wine sales, quite another to find ways to improve schools, the health of the population, and general overall societal benefits.
Re: Larry@10:
It may even be a BAD decision for WA. Buried in the opinion is a comment that restricting interstate wine sales to only reciprocal states, as WA and CA do now, is not allowed by this decision. (As a consumer in WA, I can only directly get shipments of wine from wineries in WA or in states that allow their consumers to order wine from WA wineries – so called “reciprocal states”.) So, if I am reading that right, the current law on WA’s books concerning interstate wine sales now HAS to be changed. So the WA legislature has to re-visit the wine shipment issue. Since we have it pretty good in WA now in terms of wine shipments, I hate the idea of the legislature looking at the law again. But, I think the SCOTUS just told them to do so.
Hopefully, the WA legislature won’t ban shipments all together.
– Frank
Jeeze Spider, crawl up the guys ass for asking a question, why dont ya?
And ya say the lefties dont have a sense of humor!?!
I’d sure like to ship a case of chardonnay out of the state :-)
Larry @ 10, Frank @ 12: Thanks for the info and insight.
Me @ 8: Oops. Nope. I don’t know if the decision affects Costco at all; it doesn’t invalidate Washington’s 3-tier wine distribution scheme. I guess it just says that Washington has to apply that scheme equally to both in-state and out-of-state wines.