Anomaly Vineyards

A Berkeley, California transplant's view of becoming an Accidental Vintner.

Interpreting the Ruling

The Napa Valley is buzzing today with the announcment by the U.S. Supreme Court that it opened the door to direct shipping of wines across the country from small wineries like ours. Like everything else, the ruling doesn't go as far as everyone would like, in that it basically told states that they could not discriminate against out of state shippers. Up until today, many states, like New York, Florida, Michigan, Utah, and a host of others, have not allowed wineries from out of their state to ship directly to consumers in their state. These states were considered part of the "three-tier system," meaning that in order to get the wine to the consumer from an out-of-state winery, the wine had to be sold to a distributor, who sold it to a retailer, who sold it to the customer.

Some smaller wineries, including ourselves, have been shipping to many of these states using a legal, but totally complicated, system of selling to our customers through the use of distributors and retailers who charge us a fee, to get the wine to our customers. Hopefully, the new ruling will eliminate this cumbersome, and time-consuming, set of steps so that the wine can be delivered quickly, less expensively, and most importantly, directly, to our customers. We will keep you posted as this 'breaking' story evolves. Chantico!
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