Pinot Law

As a follow-up to my post last week, the Washington Post today ran an article on the Maryland General Assembly hearing on the wine distribution law. The good news? There seems to be a lot of support for this common sense bill. The bad news? Steve Wise, a lobbyist for the Maryland State Licensed Beverage Association, compared out-of-state wineries to Tony Soprano.

Now I understand he was exercising some rhetorical flourish, but it really seems that some members of the liquor lobby will say anything to oppose self distribution measures. The most common bogeymen raised by these interests are the specter of underage drinking, and claims of unfair competition.

But let’s just quickly take these in turn shall we? Concerns about minors accessing alcohol through the internet is a tired, old argument that needs to be put to rest. First, minors are less ikely to consume wine, as opposed to beer, wine coolers, and hard liquor. Second, minors who decide to disobey the law have more direct means of doing so. Third, direct shipping is an imperfect avenue of obtaining alcohol for minors who, in the words of the past president of the National Conference of State Liquor Administraors, “ ‘want instant gratification.’ ”

But, those reasons are not my own: they are the (verbatim) words of Justice Kennedy in Granholm v. Heald.  That decision, in addition to paving the way for revamped distribution, also threw out the internet distribution concerns as pure bunk.  Indeed, the American Medical Association found that one third of teens obtained liquor from their own parents, and two out of five obtained liquor from their friends’ parents.  Sounds like the problem is parents, not the Internet.

On the second argument, I am of the belief that competition breeds fantastic results.  In the numerous states that have adopted direct shipment laws, the threatened ’sky is falling’ predictions have failed to occur.  To the contrary, consumers win; out-of-state wineries win, and in-state wineries win.  The only ones who don’t win, are the lobbyists for wholesalers and in-state retailers.