Ever read about a wine and you can’t find it anywhere? You might be getting subjected to archaic state laws. Find out what’s happening with wine shipping and how this system is about to get upgraded. How do you buy wine? It seems reasonable that if you like to shop online that you should be able to buy wine online too. Unfortunately, many state laws are archaic and align to the ideologies of Prohibition, which ended almost a century ago. To make matters worse, many of the restrictions hurt American wineries more than imports. Let’s take a look at how wine shipping laws affect you and what you can do to help change the rules. Don’t throw in the towel yet, there’s hope! Get to the bottom of Wine Shipping The red states do not allow wine shipments. There 10 states that flat out don’t allow wine to be shipped directly to you (or make it so difficult that shipping carriers simply refuse to deliver). What this image doesn’t show you is that there are several states with additional rules and fees, making it hard for small wineries to deliver their wines to you.

Let’s look at some of the details on the archaic laws of wine shipping: If you live in Alabama you have to get special prior written approval from the Alcohol Beverage Control Board and prepay for deliveries. If you live in Utah you’re a criminal (who could face felony charges) if you bring more than 2 bottles of wine home from your travels. If you live in Arizona or New Mexico you can only receive 2 cases of wine annually… that’s only one bottle every two weeks! If you live in Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Montana, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, wineries must buy a yearly permit just to ship to you. If you live in New Jersey large wineries (over 250,000 gallons) can’t ship you wine. If you live in California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska or Maryland you can pretty much get whatever you want, as long as they can get it to you. If you thought that this was bad enough, it gets worse Many states have liquor control boards that forbid or restrict retailers to offer anything but what the state brings in.

Middleman wholesalers have become monopolies in these states and the only wines you can buy are the wines they carry. Thus, wine buying becomes a pain point for many people who just don’t have access to selection — or feel awkward when they walk into a state-run liquor store.can you buy wine in ny on sunday Many shippers don’t mess with wine shipments because of the risk of felony charges of transporting wine through Utahbuy wine making kits Utah ruins it for the rest of usbest wine companies in india Since carrying wine in Utah is a felony, wines traveling through the state on the I-80 from California to New York must use secure bonded shipments (which means the freight is essentially sealed). best buy spanish wines

Many shippers don’t mess with the red tape, making it harder and more expensive to ship wine across country. Only 17% of US wineries have national distribution There’s Hope for Wine Shipping Laws There is a piece of legislation that might help, it’s called the Model Direct Shipping Bill. where can i buy wine in parisIt’s been supported by the US Supreme Court, the Federal Trade Commission and many state legislators. best dessert wine listIt could actually change the fate of wine in your state, but it has to be put into action in your state’s legislation. buy french wine in ukWhile it still costs wineries money and the permits into the state, it provides a fair share (up to 24 cases) of wine to be shipped directly to you per year. best wine in a box uk

And, of course, the bill requires shipments be labeled properly for the use of adults over 21. How to get involved If you want to change the fate of your state (come on Utah!), you and your friends can write your local member of Congress. what type of wine is best for cookingWith enough positive pressure, even old institutions can change.Whatever your wine shipping need - package or freight, surface or air, U.S. or international, routine or emergency, next day or next week - we have a solution to meet it. Effective May 1, 2012: New Jersey is now a  Direct Shipment destination state from all permitted origins. We do not accept wine shipments to the following towns in New Hampshire:  Ellsworth, Millsfield, Monroe, and Sharon. All wine shipments require an adult signature.By Andrew Staub | Wine connoisseurs in 30 states can buy their vino the 21st-century way: From Amazon.

Pennsylvania merlot lovers can’t count themselves as so lucky, thanks to stringent regulations that largely bar the direct shipment of wine to residents in the Keystone State, where the government has kept an iron grip on the booze industry since the repeal of Prohibition. While it’s not impossible to have wine delivered to your doorstep in Pennsylvania, consumers must know how to navigate a bureaucratic system. Even then, they have limited choices when it comes to finding a fermented beverage that pairs well with their artisan cheeses. Retailers cannot ship to Pennsylvania, and most wineries across the country don’t even look at Pennsylvania as a place where they can legally and efficiently ship wine, “so they simply don’t,” said Tom Wark, executive director of the American Wine Consumer Coalition in Washington, D.C. “Pennsylvania is considered a state where no one wants to do business in terms of direct-shipping,” he said. Legislative efforts to relax Pennsylvania’s direct-shipping laws have stalled, even when considered independently from ongoing attempts to privatize the state’s monopoly on liquor and wine sales.

The state House passed a direct-shipping bill earlier this year, but Wark said it still falls short, largely because it does not allow retailers into the game. In most cases, Pennsylvanians must buy their wine and liquor from about 600 state-owned stores. When those shops don’t carry a wine that a customer wants, they can’t just log onto Total Wine’s website and queue up a special order. The wine, beer and liquor retailer has an apologetic message for Pennsylvanians trying to order booze online: “Sorry! We cannot ship these items.”There’s another way, as long as customers don’t mind spending a few more bucks and letting the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board playing middle man. First, the customer has to search the PLCB’s product catalog to make sure the particular wine isn’t sold in the state stores. If it’s not, then he or she can order it from a licensed direct wine shipper. That can be expensive. The direct wine shipper adds a shipping charge and a $4.50 handling fee, in addition to charging Pennsylvania’s 18 percent liquor tax and 6 percent sales tax.

Customers have to pick up the wine at a state store, and they cannot buy more than 9 liters of wine a month from a single direct shipper. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board describes the process as direct shipping, but that’s a misnomer that only further muddles Pennsylvania’s confusing protocols, said Steve Gross, vice president of state relations at the Wine Institute, an advocacy and policy group representing the wine industry in California. “That’s a special order to the store. That’s not the home delivery that everybody is accustomed to in the other states,” he said. Getting wine to your front door Despite the PLCB’s skewed definition of direct shipping, there is a way to have wine shipped directly to the front door. The key is identifying the state’s limited wineries, which produce 200,000 gallons or less of alcoholic ciders, wine and wine coolers a year. Both in-state and out-of-state wineries can obtain a limited winery license that allows them to sell their products at their own retail locations and to sell to the PLCB.

They can also take mail, telephone and online orders and ship their wine directly to private homes. That’s how a bottle of Abe’s Apple Wine from Hauser Estates Winery in Biglerville can end up on a UPS truck and eventually the porch of a home the next county over (as long as somebody 21 and over is home to sign for the delivery). It’s also how Thorn Hill Vineyards, which grows its grapes in California’s Napa Valley, opened a tasting room in Lancaster. “It’s the way around,” said Carl Helrich, the owner of Allegro Winery in York County. The owner of a limited winery license, Allegro can ship wine directly to its customers’ homes in Pennsylvania. It also just obtained a license to ship directly into Maryland. To sweeten the deal, Allegro offers free shipping for orders of 12, 24 and 36 or more bottles. Otherwise, the fee is $20. “Ever since Amazon came along, everyone loves free shipping,” Helrich said. Ken Hadley, owner of the Tuscarora Mt. Winery in Franklin County, can also ship wine, but said it sometimes doesn’t make sense for customers to do it. 

Shipping laws on the books in other states can complicate the process. Plus, it can be expensive, Hadley said. “We try to tell the customers, ‘You know, it’s a lot cheaper to just come and get it then it is to ship it to you,’” Hadler said. Another bill on the move There was a time when Pennsylvania barred out-of-state wineries from shipping their vintages directly to customers here, even though the state allowed small local wineries to do it. The PLCB eventually extended the limited winery license to out-of-state wineries after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that in-state and out-of-state wineries must be treated equally when it came to shipping. Still, Gross described the limited winery process as like “putting a square peg in a round hole,” while Wark said the process to obtain such a license is confusing and onerous for out-of-state wineries. Both Wark and Gross cited New Hampshire, where direct shippers beyond the state border can simply get a permit to send wine, beer and liquor to residents, as an example of a better system.

“There’s a model out there that can be replicated, and we’re hoping Pennsylvania does that,” Gross said. Pennsylvania state Rep. Curt Sonney, R-Erie, has pursued direct-shipping legislation for several years to no avail. This year is no different, as his House Bill 189 would allow any winery to obtain a permit to ship any quantify of wine straight to the customer. Sonney said he’s heard about the issue from dedicated wine enthusiasts, who often find something they like when traveling or on vacation. “They’d like to ship it home and they can’t,” Sonney said. The PLCB does not comment on pending legislation. Pennsylvania would still charge the 18 percent liquor tax and the 6 percent sales tax on shipped wine under Sonney’s legislation. That raises some concerns, considering fine wine can easily cost as much as $100 a bottle. Even the taxes on a $20 bottle of wine can be double that of another state, Gross said. “We don’t want a bill to be passed that won’t be utilized because the tax is too high,” Gross said.