So I’ve got a series running on this site, aptly titled I think, what type of wine club are you?
I realized, you may wonder why I care. In large part I care because of a bit of news that came out of the Supreme Court today. Basically according to Wine Business, SCOTUS is not going to hear a case that deals with a states ability to regulate shipping from out of state retailers.
For me, as well as those other wine clubs who are really just online retailers, this case is incredibly important (Maybe, more on the maybe later). Basically some states are actively permitting wineries differently than retailers. Ok, I guess. Probably not best practices, but I can see a small argument for this. Some of those same states are permitting in state wineries differently than out of state wineries. Seems less ok. Many of those same states want to allow certain things, like shipping wine to your front door wine club style, for their in state retailers, but not out of state retailers. Seems dramatically not ok. So for some wine clubs, this could limit the states in which they can do business.
Which sucks.
Ok, so here’s the maybe part. Many states will have rules on the books but choose to not enforce them. For a wine club, it would be awfully nice to be able to be accurately permitted, pay taxes and keep everything above board. However, that’s not how things often work in real life as many states struggle with permitting issues caused by their unwillingness to move beyond Prohibition era laws.
Guys, Al Capone ain’t coming back. Come up with a better system that permits everyone. Have them pay taxes and ensure that deliveries are signed for someone over the age of 21. Think shouldn’t be so hard AND states could benefit financially by having more realistic laws and regulations.