Archive for the ‘Regulation’ Category
We’ll Get ‘Em Next Year
March 18th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Maryland puts direct shipping on the shelf until 2011.
Technorati Tags: Regulation, wine
Tags: Regulation, wine
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Bloggy Round-Up: The Three-Tiered Distribution System
March 18th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
It occurs to me, given all the chatter here and elsewhere about direct shipment of wine to retailers and consumers, that we ought to look around and see what people are saying.
By the way, the comment discussion on this over at Tom Wark’s place is really good.
From Vinotrip: A Maryland Wine Blog:
It is important to [...]
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Unintended Consequences
March 17th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Yesterday, Tom Wark published a manifesto calling for an end to the three-tiered wine distribution system.
The kind of disruption these reforms would cause would primarily affect the wholesale tier of the industry. But given the near absolute control over the sale and distribution of alcohol that wholesalers have been able to obtain, it should be [...]
Tags: wine
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Yet Another Ground-Breaking Wine Experience You’re Not Allowed to Have in Kentucky
March 12th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
The Rhone Rangers are sponsoring a Grenache tasting March 27 from 2:45 – 4 PM Pacific Time. There are two ways to participate in the event:
You can go to the tasting, which will be held in the Ft. Mason Center in San Francisco.
You can tune into the tasting via the web, listening as the wine [...]
Tags: Regulation, wine
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Your Tax Dollars at Work
March 8th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Tom Wark travels to Maryland to testify before a legislative committee considering changing Maryland’s direct shipping laws. Wark, who has testified in favor of direct shipping before, is remarkably patient when confronted with lunkheads.
The one legislator who decided to try to counter my testimony was a good looking gentleman in his late 30’s who, like [...]
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No Matter How Hard We Try, There’s Always Someone Worse
February 23rd, 2010 by Tom Johnson
When it comes to statistical indicators of achievement in social pathologies (illiteracy, unwed parenthood, trailer-based pharmaceutical manufacturing) Kentucky’s motto has always been “Thank God for Arkansas,” which commemorates that state’s perpetual status as the worst state while leaving Kentucky to feel relatively good about itself because it’s only number 49.
So it is with Kentucky’s maddening [...]
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Sometimes, I Think the French Deserve It
January 13th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Decanter reports that something called “flavescence dorée” is “threatening to become as big a problem as Phylloxera” in Bordeaux.
To put that in perspective, Bordeaux vineyards, along with the rest of the French wine industry, were basically wiped out by phylloxera in the 19th Century.
The French government has decreed that all infected vineyards have to be [...]
Tags: France, wine
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A State Even More Screwed-Up Than Kentucky
January 11th, 2010 by Tom Johnson
Maine allows wineries to sell wine 365 days a year, but they may hold only 12 tastings a year. They are not allowed to charge for those tastings, which must be carried out behind drawn curtains so children can’t see them. If someone likes a wine and wants a full glass of it, they can’t [...]
Tags: wine
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All Publicity Is Good Publicity
July 31st, 2009 by Tom Johnson
After the not-at-all-backward Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of Alabama bans Cycles Gladiator wine over its supposedly pornographic label, sales of the wine skyrocket.
Bill Leigon, president of Hahn Family Wines in Soledad, Calif., said Thursday that visits to the company’s Web site have increased tenfold since news of the ban broke late last week, and callers [...]
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In Which We Establish That the Sensitivities of Alabama Liquor Regulators Are More Than 100 Years Out of Date
July 27th, 2009 by Tom Johnson
The state of Alabama has banned the sale of Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir because the label, seen at right, features a woman “posed in an immodest or sensuous manner,” a violation of Alabama liquor law.
The image regulators found overly stimulating was developed for an 1895 bicycle advertisement. The label itself won an American Graphic Design [...]
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