In Vino Veritas

I bet Ted was my friend first! Either way, he has been doing some great work lately with reason.tv.

I can't speak to the freedom to innovate in the actual production of wine, but I can speak to the fact that there has been and still remains some ridiculous regulation of wine sales here in this nation.

In 1996 I visited 3 bodegas in the Grand Junction Colorado area, one of which was producing a really good Cab, which could not be sold anywhere but in Colorado. Since that eye opener I have learned there are many such silly ass laws and regs restricting the free market in wines in the USA.

Just last week I sent wine gift baskets to three of my better clients and the company I choose to do business with had in their catalog a comprehensive legend showing which gifts could be sent to which states.

Yeah, we have more privileges than people in other nations, but you gotta be careful with that word freedom. T'ain't freedom when someone can restrict it or dole it out as they see fit.

Kinda reminds me of Smokey and the Bandit, a movie whose plot is (thankfully) irrelevant - for now: A ridiculously low, federally imposed speed limit that only a muirdiot could love, and a beer that couldn't be sold east of the Mississippi.

And the thing about the shipping restrictions that I've always found strange is that they're clearly not an attempt at protectionism. All the major wine producing states, and all the smaller up-and-coming wine producing states allow shipping from everywhere. The dozen or so states that I'm aware of that have these laws don't really produce much of any wine. So I suppose it's a sort of blue-law holdover - I'm not sure what the origin is. We have friends in Maryland that we regulalry have bottles shipped to our place for, and then we take it to them. There's no point to it at all, but I suppose it's a good thing they have that connection at least.

In some rare states the restrictions may (long shot) be hold overs from blue laws, but I think you need to give more weight to protectionism; however, it is a protectionism that is being slowly dismantled as challenges to those state laws are brought and won.

However, I find it interesting that you have publicly confessed to being either a bootlegger or a drug runner, perhaps both.

Who knew? Can we look forward to a financial/political dynasty of Kuehns to challenge the Kennedy dynasty? Joe did it, why not DK?

Today, I say Merry Christmas youngling and may peace be on you.

RE: "Can we look forward to a financial/political dynasty of Kuehns to challenge the Kennedy dynasty?"

And the Kuehns can look forward to even more success, because I try to stay away from large bodies of water with my lady-friends.

Merry Christmas to you too! - whatever our disagreements, there's really no good reason to disagree on the self-evident fact that there's no good reason to regulate wine production!

Ahhhh DK,

You see we weren't discussing wine production. We were discussing wine distribution and sales. Going back to my initial post, the people in Colorado could produce all the wine they wanted, but they were restricted from selling it in many other states.

Now if you meant to stay on topic and you see "that there's no good reason to regulate wine distribution and sales", then we really should never have an argument again about regulation of commerce in any manner of form for any reason.

The same logic that leads us to understand "that there is no good reason to regulate wine production, distribution, or sales" is logic that can be applied to any thing or substance.

Those who regulate would be much better advised to simply put any effort into protecting the trade so that attempts to restrict any part of trade is met with punishment, not sold to the highest bidder.

Excellent post! And to highlight the difference between emergent and imposed order, the organizations that classify wines and wine-growing regions (like the Institut National des Appellations d'Origine in France) do exist in the U.S., they just aren't government organizations.

Granted, the French wine industry is quite tradition-bound. Perhaps they would have been less innovative even if they hadn't been over-regulated by the government. But the point is innovative American wineries, which were once written off, aren't anymore.

And as I've mentioned in the past, I highly recommend that anyone in the DC area visit some of the over 200 Virginia wineries that don't get as much press as the California wineries. Don and Russ - they're very close to you. There are lots right out in Loudon County, which are the ones we make it to the most.