Illinois State Legislature in the Pocket of the Liquor Distributors, Local Vintners, Brewers and their Ilk...Including the Supreme Court. Argh!

I'm spitting mad...beside myself...pissed off...and fed up. But there's little I can do, or anyone, when it comes to being compliant with a ruling of the Supreme Court. A ruling which seems to limit states' rights to some degree....

For years Illinois was one of the few states that accepted shipments from liquor stores, wineries, wine clubs with little to no restriction. It was a 'state with reciprocity' meaning (according to the Wine Institute):

Reciprocity is a legislative concept whereby each state is approached to enter into an agreement of terms for shipping wine to consumers. Reciprocity requires the legislative cooperation of other states to recognize a two-way shipment privilege. Legislation can restrict the shipment privilege, making it available only to wineries in both states, to wineries and retailers in both states, etc. Further, legislation can attempt to restrict the privilege only to wine, table wine, table wine and sparkling wine, etc. In its simplest form, a reciprocal law says “a winery in your state can ship to a consumer in my state, only if a winery in my state can ship to a consumer in your state." The reciprocal state category is now shrinking as more states transition to limited direct / permit status. For now though, this means that only wineries in another reciprocal state can ship into the reciprocal states. A winery in a prohibited state wouldn't be able to ship into a reciprocal state. The Supreme Court last May ruled that this is a violation of interstate commerce law - this is why we are moving away from these and towards more permit states.

Well, on June 4th, Illinois House Bill 429 passed by a vote of 92-6...The bill prevents any out-of-state entity from shipping into Illinois without a state-issued permit. It also requires adult signatures on shipments of alcohol. Did the lawmakers vote yes because of the signature issue -- did they think that someone would say, "representative x is all for underaged drinking because they didn't support 429"?

The bill was sponsored by Rep Edward Acevedo (Chicago) and amended by Rep Lou Lang, 16th District (Skokie). He's worked on some 'protectionist' legislation before. This google search shows his involvement in a few other bills that were ugly, but not nearly as ugly, as this one.

This article explains some of the legislation and even includes some completely delusional quotes from Lou Lang.

Here's what the article says the bills allows:

House Bill 429 is a product of nearly two years of negotiations among Illinois and out-of-state wineries, liquor distributors and Illinois retailers, said Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, sponsor of the bill. The legislation would allow Illinois and out-of-state wineries producing up to 25,000 gallons of wine per year to ship directly to consumers under a winery shipper's license. However, retailers from other states would not be able to ship wine to Illinois consumers legally.

And here's what Lou Lang says, quite mysteriously:

“You will be able to buy any wine you want from any winery in the world,” said Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie. “Consumers will now have a wider variety of choice, particularly over the Internet, from buying directly from the wineries.”

Meanwhile, the rep from Evanston, Julie Hamos, paints a different picture:

“You are no longer going to be able to buy wine from a retailer, or no longer going to be able to buy wine from a broker, or no longer going to be able to buy wine from an auction house (out of state),” Hamos said. “You're no longer going to be able to buy wine on the Internet from any of those other entities that don't happen to be wineries. This is not the way we should be going in the era of the Internet.”

One of the groups supporting the law published a press release. Here's one of the less-biased paragraphs:

Under HB 429, wineries are permitted to ship up to 12 cases of wine per person per year after obtaining a winery shipper's license. It also requires winery shippers to agree to Illinois regulatory jurisdiction and pay Illinois' excise and sales taxes. The legislation also includes safeguards to prevent shipments to underage individuals and gives the Liquor Control Commission the power to conduct Internet stings and revoke the license of violators. In addition, it allows small wineries both in-state and out-of-state that produces less than 25,000 gallons of wine per year to sell up to 5,000 gallons of their wines per year directly to retailers as a means to develop a market presence.

Just reading the above makes me queasy! So even the teeny-tiny wineries must have a legit Illinois license to ship into state. Please tell me which winery producing no more than 10,700 cases per year is going to apply for an Illinois license to ship in a few lousy cases? The whole thing is absurdly protectionist...why are state vintners, retailers, brewers, etc afraid of out-of-state vintners, retailers, and brewers shipping product to individual consumers? What is going on here?

And another thought...

The reason auction houses, brokers, and retailers exist is to sell wine that, in many cases, cannot be purchased directly from the winery. Some wineries are not set up to sell to consumers, and many do not have rare or sold out vintages available. A prohibition buying from large wineries (if they produce over 10,700 cases, they're big, according to the definition of the bill) makes this bill even more suspect. This is not a 'pro-winery, anti-auction house, broker, retailer' law, this is a law to protect the mammoth distributors who maintain a firm lock on what gets into the state. The under 10,700 cases is a concession to the wealthy and a small number of vocal collectors who insist that their purchase of uber-allocated wines does not threaten the distributors.

Now the bill is off to the senate. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I have little faith in them. Perhaps I can buy off my state senator with a nice meal or a magnum of Harlan Estate?

Click here for a run-down on state shipping laws from the Wine Institute.

Click here for a view of an excellent map detailing state laws, with definitions.