Important Letter For All Wine Loving Americans

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Important Letter For All Wine Loving Americans

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An Open Letter to Rare Wine Co. Customers
From Mannie Berk

Like me, your love of great wine is a hugely important part of your life. It enriches you, defines who you are and gives you endless satisfaction. And, like it or not, your pursuit of wine is profoundly influenced by laws in your own state ... quietly put in place over the past 65 years by entrenched local business interests.

Some of these laws require that only one wholesaler sell a given wine, while mandating minimum pricing by retailers. Other laws prohibit "direct shipping" of consumers' out of state wine purchases. But the overall goal of each is to eliminate competition and to control where and how you buy wine. And for nearly a half century they did just that.

Then, in the 1980s, the antiquated (and anti-consumer) nature of these laws began to become apparent. Specialized companies like ours were born, offering older vintages and wines available nowhere else. The first commercial wine auctions were held. And the West Coast became a world-class wine producer. As Americans began searching outside their home states for the wines they couldn't find locally, these old laws, and the interests behind them, emerged from the shadows. And it became clear that America's growing love of wine could never reach its full potential so long as such laws remained.

And so over the past 15 years, an alliance of consumers, merchants and winemakers has come forth to challenge these laws ... taking particular aim at direct-shipping prohibitions. Though America's best legal minds believe these are unconstitutional, many remain in effect and will continue to be so until expensive and laborious challenges can go through the courts. Some laws have even been strengthened at the urging of special interests. In a number of states, it is now a felony for anyone other than a local wholesaler to bring in a bottle of wine, and in most other states the legal maze makes it effectively illegal to buy wine and have it shipped from out-of-state retailers.

Meanwhile, the war of words has gotten ugly. The Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA)--whose members have the most to gain from these laws--have called fine wine retailers "bootleggers" whose greed-driven goal is an "internet free-for-all," where kids can easily buy alcohol. As for what the WSWA thinks of you, its Chairman was quoted in the New York Times on January 30 as dismissing wine collectors as "a small, very vocal segment who say they can't get their bottle of 1997 whatever."

WSWA members have matched their words with dollars, donating nearly $50 million between 2000 and 2006 to state election campaigns, while spending a further $19 million at the national level in political contributions and lobbying costs. Much of this spending is aimed at getting tougher laws against out-of-state wine shipments, heightened enforcement and more frequent "stings."

Yet despite these efforts, the breaking down of barriers has begun. In 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that states cannot allow in-state wineries to ship to their consumers and deny that same privilege to out-of-state wineries. This was a major victory for those of us who believe that Americans should have the right to buy wine where they wish, provided that adequate measures are taken to insure tax payment and to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.

But while the Supreme Court decision has made it possible for wineries to ship directly to customers in most states, the narrowness of the decision has kept it from being applied generally to retailers. This will require a further series of court challenges and, very possibly, another Supreme Court decision. It will also require great diligence to make sure that buying wine from out-of-state retailers is protected in new state laws going forward.

To coordinate and finance these efforts, a new organization was formed in 2006: the Specialty Wine Retailers Association (SWRA). It was born from the Coalition for Free Trade which guided the winery case, and the legal team--including former White House prosecutor Ken Starr--is much the same. Many of the country's leading wine merchants and auctions have already joined, and others will soon be on board. But the cost of this effort is sure to run high, and so we are reaching out to the fine wine consumers and collectors whose rights are also at stake.

As a fine wine collector you have a compelling personal interest in seeing the SWRA succeed. Should it fail, the anti-direct-shipping interests will claim vindication and will seek, and probably win, even stricter laws and enforcement. Your freedom to search out the world's most coveted wines in other states, and have them safely delivered to your home, could well be taken from you. This has already happened in Illinois, where a tough new law takes effect this spring.

I have personally been involved in this issue for more than a decade and was an active longtime supporter of the Coalition for Free Trade. So, I understand how high the stakes are. Opponents of direct shipping are well-funded, politically powerful and determined to turn back the clock 30 years. While I believe that we can and will win, I also recognize that if we don't commit the necessary resources, we will all surely lose.

And so I personally ask you to support the SWRA's work by making a donation at http://www.specialtywineretailers.org/donate.html. The process is simple and requires only a credit card.

If you'd like to get other perspectives on this important issue, please visit the links below.

Thank you very much for your help.

Mannie Berk
President
The Rare Wine Co.


1. Visit http://www.SpecialtyWineRetailers.org for full details.

2. Read Wholesale Protection at the Specialty Wine Retailer website http://www.specialtywineretailers.org/d ... n-2008.pdf

3. Read the New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/dinin ... ref=dining

4. Read the Los Angeles Times article http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-w ... ome-center
Ambition driven by passion, rather than money, is as strong an elixir as is Port. http://www.fortheloveofport.com
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