Last year I ran across a website that stirred my interest in wine consumer issues and I wrote an article about it (see my article at:
http://winecoolerblog.com/category/wine-issues). The website (freethegrapes.com) presented specific information with regards to shipping wine between the various states. I found out that several states actually made it a criminal offense to do this type of shipping of wine. Believe it or not, some states even classified this crime as a felony. Because it has been some time since I came across this issue, I decided to reacquaint myself with it in order to share the facts with you.
What I found is the issue has progressed to a critical situation called the Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act of 2010 (commonly called House Bill #5034). Hearings on this bill were recently held in late September of this year. This bill amends the Webb-Kenyon Act by emphasizing Congressional Policy that each state or territory shall continue to have the primary authority to regulate alcoholic beverages and decreasing the ability for legal actions challenging the authority of states to regulate alcoholic beverages. This amendment negates the Federal authority to regulate interstate commerce in this particular case.
House Bill #5034 further amends the Wilson Act to eliminate the state requirement to regulate the importation of all alcohol based liquors or liquids to the same extent and in the same manner as such alcohol based products produced in such state or territory. In my words, this means that each state can and probably will discriminate against these products that are produced outside that respective state. Once again, I believe the Federal government