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Legislation and Regulation

A collection of 56 issues

New Jersey: doing everything it can to make its direct shipping permit unworkable

New Jersey: doing everything it can to make its direct shipping permit unworkable

There is a belief among wine lovers that the direct shipping battle is over, with a clean victory for wineries and consumers. And for 90% of the US population, it's fairly straightforward. Then there's New Jersey.

Raise a glass! Wine is a major American economic engine.

Raise a glass! Wine is a major American economic engine.

When I hear people talking about wine, and when I read articles written about wine, it's not usually about its economic value. It's much more likely to be an exploration of its flavors, or a celebration of its compatibility with food and conviviality, or its ability

Why 200% tariffs on European wines would be extremely dangerous for California wineries

In 2019, I wrote a blog explaining why proposed 100% tariffs on European wines would create a cascade of negative impacts on American wineries, and shared the letter I submitted to the Office of the US Trade Representative in opposition to the plan. In the end, the tariffs didn'

Paso Robles gets it right, eventually, on downtown parking

In early May, the Paso Robles City Council voted 5-0 to repeal its five-year-old parking ordinance and restore free parking to downtown. This decision came after several false starts, legal challenges, and a petition drive opposing the parking plan that eventually gathered an estimated 2,400 signatures. And it came

You aren’t hearing as much about the Rocks District as you should be. You might be surprised why.

I’m not sure there’s any American Viticultural Area (AVA) as aptly named as the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater. Located in north-east Oregon just 15 minutes south of the city of Walla Walla, Washington, it’s the closest thing I’ve ever seen to the look of Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Vines

This time of year, a vineyard's approach to sustainability is clear

If you've ever wondered whether the vineyards you see are farmed chemically or organically, this is the season to check here in California. In an organic vineyard (or at least, one that doesn't use herbicides) mid-winter should show a carpet of brilliant green between, under, and

Wine, health, and the fool's gold of "zero risk"

Over the last year, there has been a steady drumbeat of anti-alcohol messaging percolating out into newspapers and magazines around the world. This messaging is due in large part to a coordinated campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO), who published a news release in January titled No level

Tablas Creek can now ship to Connecticut and South Dakota! Why did it take so long?

In 2021, I wrote a Wine Shipping State of the Union, in which I broke out the 50 states and the District of Columbia into seven tiers based on the cost and convenience for a winery to ship to that state's consumers. If this isn't something

Assessing the 11 Paso Robles sub-AVAs after their first decade

In September of 2013, the TTB published a notice of proposed rulemaking that gave a preliminary stamp of approval on the Paso Robles wine community's proposal to subdivide the Paso Robles AVA into 11 new sub-regions. I celebrated this milestone with an article on this blog where I

Unpacking a Potential Wine Scam

A little more than a decade ago, I got a scam email that was a fairly sophisticated attempting to cheat us out of thousands of dollars in shipping charges. I posted it on this blog, breaking down why it was a scam and what would have happened had I followed