Merlot by Mail

[Rail Paul]

Ordering a case of wine from a small winery which lacks a presence in your area has always been a goal of many wine lovers. State laws have often blocked this wish.

The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday on the controversy. The long running conflict between wholesalers and retailers (the anti forces) and the wine buyers and free marketers (the pro forces) has been joined by the world wide grape glut. Many smaller wineries, frozen out by the larger distributors and state reg complexity, see the 'net as their best line of distribution and are actively moving sales efforts to the 'web.

Tastentalk.net, an online site, offers wine futures $85-125. Zachy's also offers futures over its website

The article says the average bottle sold on wine.com is now $22, double a few years ago. On winebid.com, the average current bid is $86.

The WSJ summary, quoting the wineinstitute.com's website:

reciprocals: CA CO HI ID IL IA MN MO NM OR WA WV WI will allow shipping to you

tricky: AK CT LA MT NE NV NH ND WY require some winery paperwork and may impose rules on the buyers, too

tough: AZ AL AR DE KS MA ME MI MS NJ NY OH OK PA RI SC SD TX UT VT VA more paperwork and may require physical presence

felony: FL GA KY MD TN plus IN NC. May also implicate the buyer in a conspiracy to commit a felony