I firmly believe that wine should be able to ship everywhere, to an individual, certainly regulated, but not with restrictions that are ridiculous. Since the days of Prohibition, each and every state makes their own laws as to who can ship what and how much. Below you’ll find a list of state laws that border on comic, to see a list of states that allow no shipping at all visit Shipping Wine at Your Place to Wine! Find out what you can do to free the Grapes!
As a resident of Arizona we all cheered when Janet Napolitano, still governor of Arizona in 2006, made it legal to get wine shipped…however in her infinite wisdom she declared it could only be from wineries that produced 20,000 gallons or less a year. Leaving the wine distributors still in control. These small wineries that hope to ship to Arizona must also have a license! Nothing about big box stores that come in and undercut every small wine shop in the state…At least this law allows the small wineries in Arizona to now ship their wine.
It’s a Felony to ship wine into Alabama…you can request special permission from the Alcohol control Board! Forget it! How much time DO you have?
Arkansas said yes to local wineries in 2005 (thank you very much) but no to wineries outside the state, U.S. Supreme Court has UhUh! So all wine shipments are now considered illegal in Arkansas. Protest it!
Indiana allows 24 cases of wine per person per year! Seems like a lot, and it is, but who keeps track and so wineries are afraid to get caught being the 25th case!!! Indiana needs to clarify what they allow.
Kansas lets you order 12 cases of wine off-site. All shippers need a license and are required to file annual reports and pay all taxes. You can get unlimited amount shipped if you buy it on-site. I.e. As in if you’re at a California Winery and want to ship special bottles home.
In Louisiana you can get wine shipped if it is not already shipped to the state. OMG! How can you know this?
You can forget shipping wine to Maryland – if you live there support Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws.Massachusetts is another one to just write off, wineries won’t ship because of their complicated laws and Michigan is ridiculous; it allows 1500 cases a year shipped in!!! Yeh, that’s not even a thimbleful per resident.
If you want wine shipped to you in Montana, you’ll have to get a “connoisseur’s license”. Once you have that and have paid $50.00 for it, you can order 12 cases from any winery anywhere!
When we lived in South Carolina, we always ordered wine, as their mini-bottle law was just too out there. S.C. allows you order 24 bottles a month (which is 2 cases) so pretty generous, but not South Carolinian are not nearly as desperate as they were when the mini-bottle law was in effect.
In reading these laws, regulations etc, you’ll discover that perhaps the easiest way is About Wine! They know what they can and cannot do. Many times if you are visiting a winery you can sign up to have wine shipped and that hopefully qualifies you because you were physically present at the winery when purchase was made, you were of age to purchase the wine and the wine is for personal use and not for resale. Which of course is why all these laws bring up so many cans of worms to begin with!
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