One Nation For Wine

Comment

Comment by Steven on September 9, 2009 at 8:44pm

Good news, wineries can get direct shipping permits for Maine as of 9/12/2009. The only issue is they did not allow retailers once again to obtain direct shipping permits. It will be tough for a winery not in Maine to justify the cost of the permits etc. unless they know they have a good amount of business in the State - probably in the order of $700 - $800 for the first year and then only a $100-$200 per year thereafter. But then there is all the overhead of submitting returns etc. that can add to the real cost considerably. States should just let retailers in as well, it would help everyone.

Comment by The Anonymous Vino Blogger on July 30, 2009 at 8:43pm

I look forward to joining in discussions here.

Comment by Steven on September 25, 2008 at 5:40am

Jheck

Hi - what would you like to know on the TX side of things. Wineries can still obtain permits to ship direct, but like everything else it just adds additional burden on the small business. This is why retailers who can "spread" the burden are a vital part of the equation. You can see the latest from the TX ABC on this page . What can cause confusion are the two separate statements on the site "SB1229 has no immediate effect on the preliminary injunction stating that TABC will not interfere with the sales or shipments of wine from out-of-state retailers to Texas consumers." and the second statement "Therefore, effective immediately, out-of-state retailers may not ship wine directly to Texas residents without obtaining the relevant Texas retailer's permit." - either they have chosen to be selective on what to enforce or not enforce or their own website is incorrect - in talking to them it appears it is the latter case.

Comment by Jheck on September 24, 2008 at 7:38am

Your Alexander valley wine is outstanding Nick!

Comment by Nick Goldschmidt - Winemaker on September 24, 2008 at 7:22am

I am going to out sell every distributor in 40 states on my own. No wonder they wont like me going dirret. One guy on a phone doing large deals into supermarkets can outsell 1000 sales guys in teh market. Funny aye

Comment by Jheck on September 24, 2008 at 7:17am

Hi Steven

Thanks for the invite. Can you tell me about the new Texas laws?

Comment by Tim Campbell on September 24, 2008 at 7:00am

Steven....glad to participate on this topic. Although we now focus on the Asian market for DTC/DTT, our company could end up looking at US sales. Not sure I really want that pain!