The backdoor slider that got Direct Wine Shipping onto the Winery Modernization Act got withdrawn on Tuesday. Daily Record Records:

In the end, Zirkin acquiesced to those who asked him to withdraw his amendment – “I wish you had done that 25 minutes earlier,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller deadpanned – but not before Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Frederick and Washington, tried to force a vote on the issue. He took the unusual step of resisting Zirkin’s attempt to withdraw his own amendment, calling for vote on the motion.

Mooney was defeated 42-4 and the modernization bill, including the direct shipping study, moved closer to final Senate approval. The bill appears to have support in the House of Delegates as well.

Link

So it looks like the legislature is poised to pass anything wine related to placate the winos as long as it isn’t wine shipping. Maybe we could jam some open container laws through there, or selling wine in grocery stores.

The situation is downright glum.

When all the yelling was done not getting started, the hearing ended, the committee chair thanked everyone for their input and announced the bill was unlikely to pass this year. There was no straw vote among committee members. There was no real vote of committee members. There was merely an announcement that the SUB-committee of the Economic Matters Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates would review the bill next.

The bill is unlikely to pass because the chairman doesn’t want it to be brought to a vote, not because it wouldn’t pass a vote if brought to the floor.

There was a also a nice nugget which re-enforced my point that people don’t understand why wine people want this passed.

This forced me to explain my own proclivity for Austrian Riesling, how I can’t find much of it in Sonoma, how I buy it on-line, yet how I often patronize local grocery stores as well as wine stores to procure other wines.

“Well, I think you must like wine more than most people,” [the delegate] replied.

Read on

The hearing to follow will be at 1pm before the House Economic Matters Committee. For more details contact MBBWL Director of Legislative Affairs Jennifer Levy at jlevy@mbbwl.org.

There is time for public comment during hearings so if you’re passionate about it, by all means go and testify before your state lawmakers. Remember, the issue at hand is not your right to getting something shipped to you. You can go on and on about the universe of wines that Maryland wine drinkers do not have access to and the argument will be completely moot. Non-wine enthusiasts do not understand that argument. Non-wine enthusiasts see that your local wine shop carries $100 Cabernet Sauvignon and wonder why winos make such a fuss about “no, not that $100 Cabernet, this other $100 Cabernet is the one I want.” The legislators have instead made it an issue about underage drinking, so be prepared to address that.

The issue at hand is that wine consumers in Maryland cannot order a bottle of wine from an out of state retailer and have it shipped to their house. This is because Maryland law dictates that alcohol retailing in Maryland flows through the Three Tier System: producer-distributor-retailer-(you)

For more on the three tier system, read Tom Wark’s blog Fermentation. He talks about it a lot and he’ll describe it in better detail that I can.

The problem is that the liquor distributors (and some retailers) like things the way they are, so they oppose changes to the system.

Why are they against it?

The public reason

The final argument that they’re clinging to is that underage kids will have access to a world of wine which will be delivered to their door. Maryland will be helpless to enforce the age limit for purchasing alcohol. Society will descend into darkness and oblivion.

This is, of course, total bunk. No college kid is going to pay $7.99 plus $5.99 shipping for a bottle of Yellowtail to be delivered to his dorm room next week. It just isn’t going to happen. See previous post for more.

Second, UPS and FedEx will not just leave a bottle of wine lying around if you aren’t home to receive it. They require an adult to sign for the package if the package contains wine. I know through personal experience that both UPS and FedEx are extraordinarily vigilant about this.

The private reason

The distributors like things the way they are because it is profitable. Can’t blame them. If I were one of the few people entitled to buy alcohol at a discount then resell it to consumers at a significant markup, then I’d probably pull the “it ain’t broke don’t fix it card” too.

It is important to note this: proponents of direct wine shipping to Maryland are not trying to dismantle the three tier system and run distributors out of business. If direct shipping to Maryland becomes legal, distributors will still thrive doing what they do. They provide a service and fill a need to the retailers and restaurants and this need will continue to exist. Millions of Marylanders are still going to buy from their local shop. Very little will change.

Well, do we not have more important things to worry about?

Look, I’ll agree that this is a trivial issue. Maryland has real problems to deal with. Push this through and let’s get on with it.

Do we really have a chance?

In previous years, no. The bill hasn’t even made it out of committee. Now that some committee members have come on board, chairwoman of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee is threatening to refuse to hear the issue at all. Essentially, she’s saying “well you guys won’t even get the chance to vote on it, because I don’t think it’s fit for a vote.” See previous coverage here and here and plenty of other places.

In short, unless the bill is voted on in committee, then there is absolutely no chance of it passing.

What can I do?

Write to your Maryland state Representative or Senator and let them know how you feel about the issue. Support Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws for they are the ones on the front lines of this. Finally, if you really feel passionately about this, make note of who opposes the bill and vote accordingly come November.

You may wonder why a bill on wine shipping is in the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee instead of something more appropriate like Budget and Taxation. It’s because opponents of direct wine shipping have made this a heath issue by calling out concerns about underage drinking.

Her chief concern, [Conway] said, is that underage drinkers will tap the Internet for wine. There’s no way, she said, to force delivery agencies, whether the U.S. Postal Service or a private carrier, to verify the age of the person accepting a package.

I’d go into this, but I’d probably burn the blog down in anger before I finished the post. Instead, please enjoy this analysis from Dave McIntyre’s WneLine.

The U.S. Postal Service won’t ship alcoholic beverages, period. And UPS and FedEx are very conscientious about not delivering alcoholic beverages without an adult signature.

He goes on, and it is worth clicking through to the post.

Link to Baltimore Sun article.

Delegates Krysiak, Hucker, Ali, Anderson, Aumann, Barnes, Bartlett, Benson, Bobo, Bohanan, Cane, Cardin, Carr, G. Clagett, Conaway, Conway, Costa, Dumais, Dwyer, Elliott, Elmore, Feldman, Frank, Frick, Frush, Gaines, George, Gilchrist, Glenn, Gutierrez, Haddaway, Hecht, Heller, Holmes, Howard, Hubbard, Ivey, Jennings, Kach, Kaiser, Kipke, Kramer, Krebs, Kullen, Lafferty, Lee, Levi, Malone, Manno, McComas, McConkey, McIntosh, Mizeur, Montgomery, Morhaim, Nathan-Pulliam, Niemann, Pena-Melnyk, Pendergrass, Proctor, Ramirez, Reznik, Rice, Robinson, Rosenberg, Ross, Schuh, Shank, Shewell, Simmons, Smigiel, Stein, Stocksdale, Stull, Tarrant, F. Turner, Valderrama, Vallario, Waldstreicher, and Weir

Coverage of the MBBWL press conference yesterday was provided by Matt over at Free State Wine. The major talking points were addressed, as expected.

Part of today’s press conference sought to address retail and restaurant concerns about the impact of shipping wine on their sales. Reports from other states show that direct shipments have no negative effects…

More on all this next week, as well as some info on other wine related bills in the legislature this session.