Online Wine Purchases and Inter-Provincial/Inter-State Laws

We visited Sonoma in 2004 and went to a number of wineries where we would have loved to buy more than the one or two bottles we could get on a plane (pre-liquid restriction days).  Each person at the various wineries asked where we lived and when we said Florida, we got the shoulder shrug combined with the "sucks to be you" look.  The laws back then restricted where the wineries could ship their wines.  A handful of states including Florida were on the do not ship list.  We subsequently came to find out that the laws were strongly lobbied for the middlemen in the alcohol and wine industry who wanted no wine to enter the state of Florida without passing through their hands and wallets first.  The laws have been relaxed since then due to class action lawsuits and political deals.  In Canada we are no better off, there are laws in place to limit the movement of alcohol (including wine) between provinces.  In fact, each time we went to Niagara and returned with our suitcase full of wine, we were breaking the law.

There is a movement afoot here in Canada to get these laws repealed so wineries would be able to legally ship wine to consumers across the country.  One of our favorite Niagara wineries Frogpond Farms will ship to customers within the province of Ontario but not to us here in Nova Scotia.  The Alliance of Canadian Wine Consumers has created a website called Free My Grapes to educate consumers about the legal issues and the efforts to have these laws struck down in the name of free market commerce, local business support, and the expansion of the Canadian wine industry domestically.  We wholeheartedly support this movement.  As in the United States, the Canadian consumer should be given the freedom to purchase a product legally and without restriction within the borders of their own country.  Sales to minors should be a concern and the laws in place to restrict the sale of alcohol to minors should be enforced but it should be just that enforcement not prohibition.

Do you have an opinion?  Let us know.

Keep on drinking!

Chris & Shannon

PS - another wine review coming soon!  Stay tuned....