Pinot Law

Tom Wark over at the Fermentation wine blog has a great entry that touches on that shrill strongly worded letter from the Wine and Spirit Wholesalers that I wrote about the other day. All of Tom’s points are great ones, in particular, his observation that the state regulators must choose from the following: 1) heed Craig Wolf’s letter and spend state resources protecting wholesaler profits; or 2) adopt reasonable direct shipment laws and increase the state’s coffers. Tough choice.

Tom correctly views the wholesalers as imploding — and that’s what got me thinking. You see, in addition to being a part owner of a winery, I also work in the telecommunications field as a policy guy and yesterday I heard a fantastic speech. It was a speech about the impact of communications, and it got me thinking about direct wine shipping (bear with me!).

Throughout history, developments in communications, have led to massive societal change. The development of the written language? That led to the establishment of societies. Creation of the Printing Press? That led to the Enlightenment. The telegraph and Pony Express? Each contributed to the expansion of the West. And now of course we have that new-fangled Internet that is revolutionizing communications throughout the world — and this brings me to the wholesalers.

When massive technological change sweeps through society, people either embrace the technology, or shun it out of fear, ignorance or both. The Internet is revolutionizing how people communicate, how businesses conduct transactions, how governments function and — yes — how consumers buy wine. A major paradigm shift is underway. I do not know the role of the wholesalers in this revolution, but they either need to adapt to the technology or stand aside.

Old Bakelit Phone used under a Creative Commons License provided by aussiegall.