Go Pack Go!
March 25, 2008 9:58 pm Direct ShipmentWisconsin residents may still be reeling from the departure of their favorite son from Lambeau Field, but it looks like they will soon have something else to cheer about. According to Free the Grapes, Wisconsin Governor James Doyle signed Senate Bill 485 which replaces the state’s current wine shipping law and will go into effect on October 1, 2008.
While this is certainly good news, one of the comments to the Free the Grapes blog entry noted some valid shortfalls. In particular, while Senate Bill 485 permits direct wine shipments to consumers, a winery may not sell wine directly to retailers and can only sell to wholesalers. This same commenter noted that “What Wisconsin needs is a system that allows both in-state and out-of-state wineries to sell directly to retailers and consumers . . . [a]s for the wholesalers…do they really need protectionist legislation to survive?”
I could not agree more — and Wisconsin isn’t the only state with that problem. Even Virginia, is still tinkering around with how to handle winery to retail shipments — nearly three years after the Granholm decision.
Anyway, for all you out there with an interest in Wisconsin other than football and cheese, I thought I would pass this along.
Welcome to Wisconsin used under a Creative Commons license KATYA de countess of WIS.
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Jeff Carroll :
Date: March 27, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
Kevin,
With full disclosure, I’m about as big of a Packers fan as you’ll find. Most will disagree with this, but I think he was the greatest of all time. When people talk about his records, they mostly mention most touchdowns of all time, most passing yards, most wins, etc. But, I think the most important record is the most MVP awards (3) of all time. And all three came during the time of Barry Sanders I believe.
Anyway, we put up a few posts about the Wisconsin bill on our blog as well (see this one for example). Although I agree that the bill could be much better in terms of self-distribution, I just wanted to point out that small wineries (producing less than 25,000 gallons of wine per year) can group together to create a “cooperative wholesaler” and therefore bypass the traditional wholesalers (who wouldn’t pick up their wine anyway!). This is at least slightly better than forcing all sales to retailers through traditional wholesalers.
Kevin :
Date: March 27, 2008 @ 9:01 pm
Jeff:
I totally agree, and I think your points are good ones (on the Wisconsin wine distribution, that is!). Any statutory mechanism that enables small wineries to bypass the wholesalers is a good one in my book. As far as QBs go, Favre is indeed one of the greatest — I have a few friends from the Green Bay area and I know he will be missed.
Thanks for your comment and keep coming back!