Whining About Wine
Published by Al Adomite on May 27th, 2008
By Al
I recently received a notice from one of our favorite California wineries about the impact of a new Illinois state law that will severely limit wine shipments from out-of-state wineries. Turns out this new law is not only setup to pad distributors pockets, but it’s also unconstitutional:
Illinois also gets to violate the U.S. Constitution. What a deal! The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled, “States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses.”
Turns out that state legislators are getting their pockets lined, as well, with campaign contributions from liquor distributors:
[The] law’s lead sponsor, Rep. Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago), has received $32,000 from alcohol wholesalers since 2000, including $10,000 since the legislation was introduced last year. Senate sponsor James Clayborne Jr. (D-Belleville) has received $85,000 from alcohol wholesaler interests since 2000, including $15,000 since the legislation was introduced. Since 2002, Gov. Rod Blagojevich has received more than $500,000—just from alcohol wholesalers in Illinois, $50,000 of which was given to him since he signed the bill into law.
Now, I’m a big fan of Illinois wineries, and this law isn’t designed to help them. Exactly opposite, local wine drinkers are actually much more likely to visit an Illinois-based winery if they consume wine from other places. But still, for some unknown reason, the Illinois Grape Growers and Vintners Association supported this bill. I’m stunned by that fact.
This law simply tells us consumers that we’re incapable of ordering wine for ourselves, but instead must have our wine choices made for us by local distributors. It seeks to limit our access to good wines and smaller wineries.
Thankfully, Len at Crushed Grapes is helpful about finding those hard-to-find wines. But, if you’re having a hard time finding another bottle of that red you really enjoyed at a local restaurant, call your state rep and tell him/her they really messed up. Here are the roll calls, looks like just about all our local reps voted yes in favor of it. Bipartisan insanity.
Until then, read more from the Specialty Wine Retailers Association. They’ve got a whole page dedicated to this Springfield lunacy. I guess we’re lucky that we live near Missouri, where I’ll be taking my sales to get the wine I want.
Filed under State Issues
May 28th, 2008 at 8:29 am
I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one, Al. In some states, like Kansas, you could easier accept delivery of a giraffe before they’d allow a few bottles of wine sent to your home.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:29 am
How did our local legislators vote on this bill?
May 29th, 2008 at 11:06 am
[...] read the last two posts, a well-written one by Mark and a scorcher by yours truly, and realized that words like “bipartisan insanity” are not what this [...]
June 7th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
[...] shipments from out-of-state wineries.? Turns out this new law is not only setup to pad distributohttp://partisandiscourse.com/2008/05/27/whining-about-wine/Wineries try to build weekday traffic KOAM-TV Pittsburg Associated Press - May 18, 2008 6:24 PM ET [...]