Virginia Wine
I don’t have much details on this — perhaps “Brian Patton”:http://brianpatton.org/ does? — but I just heard from the Lake Anna Winery. Apparently, some Federal court decision puts their business model at risk; they may be forced to use a distributor.
Here’s the content of their email:
bq. A Federal Judge has ruled that the ability of Virginia Farm Wineries to sell directly to retail outlets (stores and restaurants) is unconstitutional and has ordered that stop. This represents at least 20% of our current sales and is what makes our wines available to stores near you. We can only continue to self-distribute if the General Assembly passes a law opening the state to small, out of state wineries. The Wholesale Lobby is trying to keep us from retaining this right by insisting that we use Virginia wholesalers (distributors) or set up a “phantom” distributorship of our own with its licensing, taxes, insurance, administrative overhead, etc. HB 1288, introduced by the Virginia Wineries Association, will enable us to retain our right to self-distribute by also allowing small out of state wineries to direct-distribute into the Virginia market should they wish. In addition, they can also apply to be sold in Virginia ABC stores, which will enable ABC stores to continue be an outlet for Virginia wine. This will increase the availability of boutique wines to our consumers as well as ensure our wines remain available in all areas of the state. Please support us by making this call. We need to get a grass roots response to overcome the financial lobbying contributions provided by the wholesalers to influence our legislators.
I’m not entirely sure I understand the issues involved here, but it seems to me that laws restricting access of small businesses to their markets is generally a bad thing. I’m especially concerned about legal mandates giving distributors the authority to decide who gets to sell product in Virginia. Distributors are a convenience and that’s fine — but they shouldn’t have a legally protected role as gate-keeper.
If you are a Virginia resident and would like to support Virginia Wineries in this, you can find out who your State Delegate and Senator are “at the Virginia General Assembly site”:http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform, and email them from there.
