Ruling favors local wines

Puget Sound winemakers raised their glasses Monday to hail a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that they say will open up opportunities for new business.

The 5-4 decision struck down bans that 24 states had placed on direct shipments from out-of-state wineries to consumers. Legislatures in those states now will have to review their laws to ensure all wineries are treated the same.

“We’re really delighted,” said Alex Golitzin, the owner of Quilceda Creek Vintners in Snohomish. “It’ll get all 50 states on the same playing field.”

The ruling came in a lawsuit challenging bans Michigan and New York had placed on wine sales, which allowed the states’ wineries to ship directly to consumers while blocking similar shipments from out-of-state producers.

“It doesn’t make any sense to allow in-state wineries to ship direct to consumers and not allow out-of-state wineries,” said John Bell, the owner of the start-up winery Willis Hall in Marysville.

Each state sets its own restrictions on wine sales to consumers, based on laws dating back to Prohibition. Washington is one of 13 states that allows its residents to buy directly by mail-order from wine producers within each others’ borders.

Other states allow direct wine shipments by permit only, some allow direct shipments under limited circumstances and in some states making a direct shipment is a felony.

And even some states that allow shipment give counties the option to ban them, or tax them at different rates, Golitzin said.

All in all, it’s easier to get permits to ship guns around the country than wine, Golitzin said.

“I’m from Utah, and I can’t even send wine to my family at Christmas,” said Heather Newman, the retail manager for Whidbey Island Winery near Langley.

Industry experts say it’s the small wineries such as Quilceda and Whidbey that will benefit most from an expanded market for direct wine shipments.

As it now stands, the only way to get wine into states that ban direct shipments is through a distributor. However, the local winery owners said, consolidation in that industry had created what Bell called a “giant economic monopoly” that controlled which wines were available in those states.

The problem is that the number of wineries nationwide is growing, while the number of licensed distributors is shrinking, said Tim Hightower, the president of the Washington Wine Institute and the co-owner of Hightower Cellars outside Benton City.

That means, “if you’re a small winery in Washington state and you want to go into New York City, you’ve got to find a distributor willing to take you on,” he said.

But finding a distributor is just the start, Hightower said. Those companies may have 200 or more wineries in their portfolio, so it’s a constant effort to make sure they’re out there marketing your wine to restaurants and retailers. Large wineries can afford to hire sales representatives to do that, but smaller wineries can’t.

For smaller wineries, more direct mail-order sales would be a boon.

Newman said Whidbey Island already ships “quite a bit of wine out of state.” Most of it goes to people who came into the winery’s tasting room on vacation, and when they get home want to buy more.

The various state bans can prevent that, she said, adding, “It’ll be really, really nice not to have to tiptoe around and check all the state laws.”

The Supreme Court ruling doesn’t automatically lift all limits, Hightower cautioned. States that block direct out-of-state sales now could opt simply to ban all straight-to-consumer shipments, he said.

And whatever direction the states choose, it won’t happen right away, he added. “We have to wait for each state that might have laws in violation … to go back and change their laws so they’re no longer in violation of the Constitution.”

Still, the ruling is a “good step forward,” Hightower said.

Golitzin agreed. “You can’t have fair trade and free trade everywhere else and not have this.”

Reporter Bryan Corliss: 425-339-3454 or corliss@heraldnet.com.

Wine list

There are eight licensed wineries in Snohomish and Island counties, plus a company that makes mead, a honey wine. They are:

Baer Winery: North of Woodinville

Cedar Ridge Winery: Snohomish

Griffins Crossing: Lake Stevens

Quilceda Creek Vintners: Snohomish

Saintpaulina Vintners: Snohomish

Whidbey Island Winery: Langley

Willis Hall: Marysville