That Other Wine Bill: Maryland Winery Modernization Act
A blog posting on Vinotrip about the Maryland Winery Modernization Act (HB-921), which "seeks to clarify what a winery can and cannot do":
That Other Wine Bill: Maryland Winery Modernization Act
Lost in all the crying in my Merlot over wine shipping has been
the progress of another wine bill casually making its way through the
Maryland House this spring. The Maryland
Winery Modernization Act (HB-921) is the major legislative effort
from the Maryland Wineries Association.
Running a winery includes a lot more than just making wine. These
days you need a tasting room, a wine club, online retailing and
shipping*, Twitter, Facebook and in between all this you have to turn
out good wine and a good price. Much like running anything alcohol
related in Maryland, putting together all of these components means
navigating an extraordinarily complicated sea of regulations, each with
an enforcer ready to fine you if you turn the wrong direction. Worse,
the regulations vary from county to county. Wineries in one county may
offer tables to sit in the tasting room, something which may be
prohibited in the next county over.
Enter the Maryland Winery Modernization Act. The Act seeks to
clarify what a winery can and cannot do. Included are provisions to
establish a permit for selling wine at farmers markets and allowing the
serving of specified foods in a wineries tasting room.
The Act, looking all but certain to pass, has picked up a heavy
tailwind of support in the wake of the doomed voyage of the RMS Wine
Shipping. Some legislators who oppose direct shipping have called the
Modernization Act a compromise, as if the liquor lobby is throwing us
winos a bone and hoping we’ll be happy enough to let direct shipping
slide. “We’ll pass this,” they’re saying, “If you guys will finally
stfu about direct shipping.”
More coverage of the act from the Baltimore
Sun and Baltimore
Business Journal.
*Not applicable in Maryland
And now a word from our sponsors:
Buy 6 or more bottles of New
York Wine and get 50% off shipping with coupon code “threevino”. I
humbly suggest the Salmon
Run Pinot Noir