Ballard Canyon AVA Pricing

According to W.BlakeGray's blog post:
BallardCanyon

the vintners in the new BallardCanyon AVA are discussing imposing a minimum price on BallardCanyon Syrah of $30/btl. Best I can tell, the only wnry that'll impact is Rusack..they'll have to raise their price by $4-$5/btl. Jonata and Stolpman are already above that.
Interesting concept, I thought. But not sure how they'd enforce it for folks (Jaffurs, for one) from outside the AVA, unless Stolpman writes it into his contract.
Tom

Sounds like an antitrust law violation to me.

-Paul W.

Sounds like an antitrust law violation to me.

-Paul W.

I don't see how they can enforce it as part of an AVA approval for labeling purposes. I'm sure it's not within the AVA legal definition. It seems they would have to have some kind of voluntary legal association and trademark; that's what Coro Mendocino did. And of course, they can't restrict actual retail pricing, just what they sell it for.
CMM

I'm not sure that they can even restrict what *they* sell it for. It's illegal for groups of producers who collectively dominate market share to collude on prices.

-Paul W.

Coro Mendocino got around that by establishing a consortium with a board and members that appears to own the rights to the name Coro Mendocino, and establishes the pricing, packaging and blending rules for the wine. I would imagine the Ballard Canyon folks could do similarly if they established some kind of Ballard Canyon Syrah association. But problematic if they want to extend it to all Syrah from the AVA.

Sounds like an antitrust law violation to me.

-Paul W.

Exactly!