Kentucky ABC to wholesalers: #### off!

[Robin Garr]

Meant to post this earlier ... the local paper (not always trustworthy, but apparently correct this time) reports that the Kentucky Office of Alcoholic Beverage Control has decided NOT to appeal Federal Judge Charles R. Simpson's ruling that a state law to have taken effect Jan. 1 limiting wine shipping to individuals to situations in which Kentucky buyers physically ordered wine at the winery was unconstitutional.

Since that law would have replced the state's old felony shipping law, this apparently opens the door to legal shipping to Kentuckians.

The letter of the law limits shipping to small wineries (producing no more than 50,000 gallons of wine annually) and requires that wineries register with the state before shipping. None, at this point, have done so.

But given that Kentucky ABC has never enforced any shipping laws, the removal of the felony provision from the law books should eliminate any real concerns about shipping wine to Kentuckians in general.

It should be noted that the state wholesalers still say they may appeal, although without state regulators joining in the suit, this seems unlikely; of greater concern is that the legislature is in session, and lord knows what kind of mischief the wholesale boys may get into down there, where their long record of "campaign contributions" has bought them a lot of friends.

For now, though, the news looks very good.

Congratulations, Robin, and all Kentuckians. At the very least this looks like a step forward and away from the three-tier madness.

I hope that a similar wave starts taking charge in all jurisdictions throughout North America and that the laws governing wine purchases finally - at long last - come into line with modernity. The time is now for wine lovers everywhere to simply have the freedom to legally purchase any wine, produced anywhere at all, and to have the option of having said wine legally shipped to them without any restrictions. I've always said that jurisdictions should be able to collect taxes as necessary, but for heaven's sake, people should have choice.

of greater concern is that the legislature is in session, and lord knows what kind of mischief the wholesale boys may get into down there, where their long record of "campaign contributions" has bought them a lot of friends.

My, but you're cynical, Robin.

(Just because you're cynical, that doesn't mean you're wrong! )

[James Roscoe]

You are a lot farther down the road to freedom than we are here in Maryland where the wholesalers don't just own the General Assembly, they run it! Our Senate majority leader is a member of a family with ties to wholesalers. He has run the state for twenty years from the Maryland Senate.