Ohio Wine Laws – Legislative Alerts

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I know I’m usually a one-post-per-day type of gal. But I just got an email worthy of a second post for the day. Ron & Nancy of Kinkead Ridge have given me permission to repost their email here. Take a minute to digest it:

We have been working diligently to insure Ohio has a fair and constitutional solution to the direct shipping issue.
Last
Tuesday June 5th, over the objections of our Senator Tom Niehaus and
Senate Finance Chair Carey, Senate President Harris attached a wine
amendment to the budget bill.

The amendment, if
implemented, will eliminate your ability to order wine from medium and
large wineries. Orders from small wineries are permitted, but with many
"only in Ohio" restrictions and such bureaucratic excess that in fact
little wine will likely be shipped.

The bill’s
amendment has been reviewed by WineAmerica, a national winery trade
organization. We were told that at least some of their recommendations
had been implemented. They were not.

The
budget bill (HB119) is due to be voted on Wednesday the 13th of June.
After that it will go to conference where changes can be made.

Now
is the time to make your views known to your elected representatives.
At a minimum, all of WineAmerica’s recommendations should be inserted
into the amendment in conference. At best, the amendment should be
pulled and submitted as standard legislation.

The
wholesalers, a few Ohio wineries, and the Senate President have
demonstrated a disregard for wine consumers and the legislative process
which should not go unchallenged.

Your Senators can be contacted using the information here.

It’s not just happening in Ohio. There are wine laws in Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, just to name a few, that do not favor the consumer. We actually had a wine club in California drop us last year because of our state. It’s getting harder to get the wines you want, from the the places you want, at the prices you want to pay.

Need more information for your own state? Check out FreetheGrapes.org and Wine America.