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Legislation and Regulation

A collection of 55 issues

The High Costs of State Alcohol Franchise Laws

The power to take your business elsewhere is fundamental to capitalism. This power of choice keeps prices reasonable, incentivizes efficiency and customer service, and keeps the business environment healthy by forcing companies to innovate and winnowing out those that don't keep up. Remove the ability to choose another

We celebrate the release from quarantine of four new Rhone grapes

By Robert Haas This week we are filing a petition to recognize Terret Noir, Vaccarese, Picardan, and Bourboulenc for use as grape varietal names on labels in the United States. The petition, ready to go out yesterday afternoon: In 1990, when Tablas Creek Vineyard was founded, it was our intention

Another detour along the road to American organic wine

About three months ago, the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) made a ruling that didn't get a lot of press, but is likely to produce a remarkable trifecta of negative results, discouraging organic viticulture and ensuring that the reputation of American organic wine remains dubious, all while putting

The power grab behind New York's proposed "at rest" legislation

Editor's Note 2/4/2014: This post was originally written in March of 2012 and in part thanks to the outcry of wine lovers everywhere the 2012 legislative session expired without enacting the proposed legislation. It was reintroduced in 2013, but wasn't enacted. Like a zombie,

A Closer Look at Paso Robles' Microclimates

This morning, I had the pleasure of sitting on a panel with Adelaida Cellars' Terry Culton, Eberle Winery's Ben Mayo, and Victor Hugo Winery's Vic Roberts for an audience of fifteen or so visiting Canadian journalists and members of the Wine Institute. Our topic was

Investigating an Attempted Wine Scam

I got the following scam email over the weekend: From: Sent: To: Subject: At first, I was just going to delete the email, but then I thought that I might as well publicize it a bit should other people have received similar letters. It's actually fairly clever for

Zombie legislation: HR 5034 lurches back to life as HR 1161

Last year, beer and wine wholesalers' associations spearheaded the introduction of HR 5034 into the US House of Representatives. Although the legislation was never passed (it never even made it out of committee) by the end of the legislative year it had amassed 153 co-sponsors, or more than one-third

An update on HR 5034: a good meeting with Kevin McCarthy and a positive note from Diane Feinstein... but the co-sponsors list grows to 106

About a month ago, prompted by an email exchange I had with Representative Kevin McCarthy, I wrote about HR 5034, a bill introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives by the beer and wine wholesalers associations that would, among other impacts, likely restrict or eliminate out-of-state winery direct shipping.

An exchange with Representative Kevin McCarthy on HR 5034 and direct shipping

On April 15th, H.R. 5034 was introduced into the US House of Representatives. This bill, written by the Beer Wholesalers of America and titled the "Comprehensive Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act of 2010" [Get it? The "CARE Act"] would write into law the primacy of the

The TTB gets it right on Calistoga

On Tuesday, December 8th, the Federal Register published the TTB's approval of a Calistoga AVA that has been held up since 2007 due to a name conflict with two existing wineries. This approval is a win for wine lovers, for wineries who make wines of place, and for