Pinot Law

ShipCompliant has an important entry for those of you who currently ship, or plan to ship, to the Illinois.  That state will be instituting its new permit process, effective June 1st.  The application is available here.

But I also came across another interesting item regarding this change to Illinois law.  According to this entry, “FollowTheMoney.Org” tracked state campaign contributions for the Illinois House representatives that sponsored the bill (HB 429).  Here are the results:

• Representative Edward Acevedo: received $32,000 from alcohol wholesalers since 2000,including $10,000 since the legislation was introduced last year.
• James Clayborne, Jr.: received $85,000 from alcohol wholesaler interests since 2000, including $15,000 since the legislation was introduced.
• Governor Rod Blagojevich: who signed HB 429, has received more than $500,000 just from alcohol wholesalers in Illinois since 2002, $50,000 of which was given to him since he signed the bill into law.

I have said it before, but it is imperative that the wine industry act as a group in order to avoid these unfortunate setbacks.  Whether it is through involvement with state or national associations, it is imperative that we make our voice heard on these types of issues.  While we lost Illinois, at least we won in Georgia.

Stay vigilant — Stay active — Stay informed!

Most small, farm wineries have enough things to worry about: the heavy hand of federal and state regulation, confusing shipment laws, and now even the weather. But be sure to add one more thing to the list: scam artists.

A few weeks ago, our winery received an e-mail from Mr. John Nelson. Claiming to be an American living in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. Nelson said he came across one of our wines at a Christmas party, loved the taste and wanted to have some shipped to Seoul for his birthday party.

Being raised in New Jersey and having gone to school in the Bronx, my radar immediately went up.  Fortunately, after typing a few search terms into Google (i.e., “John Nelson” Seoul, wine) I came across this website from a winery in California.  The blog entry — by Mary Baker of Dover Canyon Winery — confirmed my suspicions: Mr. Nelson and his wine request was nothing more than a major scam.

Mary Baker’s entry is well worth the read and goes into this scam in far greater detail than I ever could.  But the bottom line for all of us out there is this: if it sounds too good to be true, and/or just a tad bit suspicious, it probably is.

I am sure that most of you are aware that the wine industry lost a legend yesterday — Robert Mondavi passed away at 94. There is not much that I can say about the man that has not already been said. However, my favorite insight in Mr. Mondavi is that according to this article, when he sold his wine empire to the highest bidder in 1992, he vowed at the time to “start over.”

And one other point I think is worth mentioning. The above article points out that many in the wine industry point to Mondavi as the singular driving force that propelled California winemaking from a “cottage industry” to a global force. I think that speaks volumes to what one person can do for an industry region, in this case winemaking in California.