Do you have a friend who just loves a certain California Chardonnay or delightful Oregon Pinot Noir?
Maybe you’d like to send a friend some wine or order a half case of your favorite fermented grape juice from Napa Valley for a special gathering or anniversary.
I’m here to help you but maybe just confuse you. There are no laws more convoluted than liquor laws. And especially confusing is the ever-changing laws regarding wine shipments.
There is mystery, intrigue, lots of greed, and more greed (and did I mention greed?) behind the laws that allow wine shipments to cross state lines. During a summer visit to Oregon’s Willamette Valley I had a nice chat with the owners of a new winery who had just opened shop after long careers in international finance.
“We quickly learned there is only one business with more regulations than finance and that’s liquor,” said Donna Morris, who owns Winderlea Winery in the Valley near Dundee with her husband Bill. By the way, Winderlea makes incredible Pinot Noir. It’s not of the price point I normally recommend in this column, it is in the $45-$50 range.
Maybe you want to try some $50 Pinot from Winderlea, Lange Winery, or Domaine Serene. Or how about a bottle of Russian River Valley Pinot from Gary Ferrell? Perhaps you’ve always wanted one of those ultra-expensive bottles of Insignia from Joseph Phelps in Napa.
Good luck.
The wine shipping laws from state to state are so varied, so confusing that you can drive California Highway 29 through the heart of Napa and stop at 15 wineries in no time at all. And if you ask about having their wines shipped to Indiana, you may get 15 different answers. I’ve literally done just that.
The responses start at yes and no and then go to crazy things like the number of bottles, the number of cases, and whether you can hop up and down and rub your tummy at the same time!
Wineries must register with each state where they ship their wines. The registration fee might be $10 in one state and $500 or $1000 in another. So whether you just call an out-of-state winery, or visit an out-of-state winery, there is no guarantees you can get the wine back home unless you bring it back with you.
Some wineries do ship to Indiana, but again there are no consistent applications of the law.
In Indiana the in-state law has been altered and changed and is equally confusing, but a little less so. And did I mention greed earlier? The nonsense all began way back after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Indiana law initially required producers to only sell through a limited number of wholesalers. The wholesalers were king and remain a strong lobbying force whenever wine shipping laws are discussed today.
Do you remember the “beer baron” debates about beer distribution several years back? Think ‘beer barons’ and just substitute ‘wine shipping.’
The good news is you can have wine shipped from Easley Winery of Indianapolis or Huber Winery from down near the Ohio River or any of the more than 30 Indiana wineries to your doorstep. But there is one catch. You have to provide identification proving your age on site (point of sale) at the winery before they can ship to you.
“We’re very conservative in our approach,” said Meredith Easley of Easley Winery. The family-owned winery spokesman said they have forms you can fill out at the winery or events they attend. They make a copy of your driver’s license to keep on file and then they can ship you their products. For first-time wine drinkers, try their Reggae Red or Reggae Blush.
So in Indiana you can get wines from our wineries if you have visited and given them your identification information. If you want to buy from out-of-state wineries, it’s different state to state and winery to winery.
Most wineries have great websites. And almost every winery website will list the states they will ship to and those they will not. It’s a great tool.
So introduce your friends to a good bottle of wine during the holidays. If you can’t get the wine you want shipped do two things. First, visit some of the really large wine shops in the nearest big city and using your best judgment or recommendation from the sales staff, buy a nice bottle and put a big bow on it.
Second, write your Indiana legislator and tell them to end the nonsense in wine shipping laws.
Who would oppose lesser restrictions on shipping other than wholesalers? Well, the badly misinformed lead the way. There may not be a more serious youth issue than underage drinking. Every time the discussion of wine shipping laws begins there will be those who will wave their arms and wail about giving young people easier access to alcohol. And for the record, I’m against that.
But that argument is a false one – kids and alcohol just stir emotions. There has never been a documented case of an underage person illegally buying wine on the internet and having it shipped to their doorstep. Never!
And if you apply a little common sense, would a teenager go to the trouble to order a $20 bottle of Cabernet from California and wait a couple weeks for a Friday night buzz? Or, would they find an older friend to go to the local liquor store and ask them to buy a six pack?
The complexity of the Indiana’s law breeds frustration. Just call me frustrated. I learned today I couldn’t order Winderlea’s fabulous reserva Pinot because of Indiana’s silly law.
Free commerce is a foreign concept to liquor laws.
Ask questions of contact him at: hewitthoward@gmail.com
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