Ohio Works on Wine Bill

Filed in archive Wine Laws on April 22, 2007

Wine lovers in the great state of Ohio will be able to taste some of the great local wine a little more easily if this new wine bill is passed. It will allow small local wineries to sell via mail order as well as in stores without having to go through distributors, thus cutting out the middle man and not cutting into their grape profits.

From Mail order wine:

A proposed amendment to the state's budget bill would allow operators of small wineries in Ohio to sell their wine by mail and to put their products in grocery stores without using a distributor. But the author of the amendment, House Finance Chairman Matt Dolan, R-Novelty, says it mistakenly includes an unintended provision on brew pubs that will have to be deleted.

Dolan said he sought suggestions from trade groups representing the beer and wine industries, but didn't know how a provision barring brew pubs from selling takeout bottles and sealed jugs of beer got written into the amendment. "I was told it was ready to go and sent it out to the interested parties," Dolan said. "I hadn't even read it. I created my own problem."

[...] Although the Wholesale Beer & Wine Association opposes the direct sale of wine to consumers, spokesman Bob Tenenbaum said the association would support the measure, provided the brew pub provision is removed, because the amendment satisfies the law with minimal damage to regulations surrounding wine distribution.