Wine-a-rama

Justices Step Into Interstate Wine Rift
The Supreme Court agreed to resolve an intensifying debate over whether states can prohibit out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers. [New York Times: National]

While direct sales from wineries to consumers are growing quickly as states relax their prohibitions or lose court cases, as Texas did last year, they are still a small portion of all wine sales, $200 million out of $18 billion last year. The stakes are obviously high, however, both to the wineries, which are motivated to avoid sharing their profits with wholesalers, and to the states. The National Conference of State Liquor Administrators estimated in 2000 that states were losing tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue from interstate wine sales to consumers. Thirty-six states have joined a brief filed by Ohio in support of Michigan's appeal.