The Baltimore Sun ran and article on March 30 reporting how Maryland’s powerful liquor lobby ran through their entire agenda at the recent session of the Maryland Legislature (2008 session ends Monday).
Maryland’s powerful liquor lobby is on track to achieve virtually all of its legislative priorities during this General Assembly session - despite opposition from [...]
Continue reading about Baltimore Sun On The Maryland Liquor Lobby
Several weeks ago I posted a response from Delegate Carolyn Krysiak to Marc, who was gracious enough to leave it in the comments.
Finally, for wine connoisseurs who seek certain wines that are not currently carried by stores, there is already a way to do that. The wine can be shipped to a local retailer directly [...]
Best comment this week (okay fine, the only comment this week) goes to Marc, who posted this in the comments of an earlier post. It is a response to his query on why HB-1260 did not pass.
Thank you for your correspondence. Let me explain why House Bill 1260 has failed to pass.
First, the Baltimore [...]
Continue reading about Maryland HB-1260: The Opposition Responds
The bill wasn’t even brought to a vote. What a complete shame. There is still a bill in the Senate but I am not optimistic. (edit: Senate side killed too. Someone much more informed than I told me that if a bill is killed on one side, the crossfiled version is also dead. [...]
Another hearing on HB-1260 (SB-616) is scheduled for tomorrow. These bills would allow Marylanders to get direct shipments of wine to their homes like civilized people instead of being putzed around with by the distributor’s lobby.
The Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee (who?) will hold the hearing. It goes off tomorrow (Friday the 7th) at [...]
Continue reading about HB-1260 Wine Shipping Bill Hearing Tomorrow
Amazon.com, Internet purveyors of…. well, everything, are looking to expand that universe by beginning to sell wine.
Amazon is looking to recruit a senior wine buyer, whom it says will be responsible for “the acquisition of a massive new product selection” for its site. The wine sales will augment a rapidly expanding non-perishable groceries business that [...]
I heard from the guy behind the guy behind the guy that the good guys aren’t optimistic about HB-1260 passing this year. They are, however, looking forward to next year, when they feel it will have enough votes.
Food and Wine Blog posted an all-inclusive update here. There is a hearing on the bill [...]
A bill has been introduced into the Maryland Assembly that reportedly open the airwaves for Maryland residents to receive wine shipments not only from wineries but also from retailers.
HB-1260 is in the House right now and crossfiled with SB-616. A pdf of the bill can be found here.
I’m no legislative analyst, but I [...]
Continue reading about Wine Shipping Bill Introduced this Week
Eric Asimov has a fine article on wine shipping laws in the New York Times: A Befuddlement of Liquor Laws
The article generated so much attention, there is now a follow up piece on The Pour.
In his follow-up, Asimov inadvertently summarizes what all retailers feel about shipping wine to their customers.
In trying to get clarification about [...]
My vitriol for Maryland’s wine shipping laws will find no sympathy up I-83, where Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board keeps wine drinkers on a short leash. Not only can you not have wine shipped to you, but you can’t even purchase from a private wine shop. The only place to pick up your [...]
Continue reading about Pennsylvania’s LCB Loves You and Wants You To Be Happy
