Indeed everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon to sell wine. One of the biggest barriers to entry however seems to be the archaic statutes and regulatory requirements on the books of most every state. One would think that the fairly recent US Supreme Court rulings would have resolved this, which it did to an extent, but mostly for the benefit of wineries – not retailers.

Costco’s strategy might be to slow down the spending on legal fees to defend their right to ship. From what I can see, they have been big proponents of trying to keep the Prohibition fringe from reemerging in this country and have devoted substantial resources to the fight.
We are not going to make progress in commerce until we can change laws at a state level, not the least of which is the traditional three tier system of distribution: winery, distributor and retailer. Distributors have a lot of muscle in terms of political capital (read: contributions to politicians); thus the influence to protect their turf, even to the detriment of consumers.

Of course more retailers mean more competition for my dollar, which translates into more choices and better prices for me. The caveat is however, if I can get it shipped to my state or not. The downside of having more retailers is that there is more potential for duplicity and shabby business practices, especially when it comes to the issue of a wine’s provenance.

I have come to trust certain retailers and auction houses over the years. These companies stand behind their wines as much as reasonably can be expected. One company even spent several days with me to track down the origin of a wine I purchased but suspected was counterfeit; it was not. So Amazon may get in the game but I doubt seriously if they care about wine like a fine wine merchant does. I would much rather pay a few dollars more to keep smaller wine merchants in business and know that my purchases are the quality I expect and am paying for.

As with most purchases, and perhaps more-so with internet purchases: buyer beware!

David Boyer