LEGISLATION TO PROTECT MARYLAND WINERIES

*Bushnell v. Ehrlich is a federal court suit filed by a PA winery alleging that MD law violates the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution because it allows MD wineries certain authorities that are prohibited to out-of-state wineries. MD law currently allows MD Wineries to sell and deliver their wine directly to restaurants and retailers throughout the state and sell their wine directly to the consumer at the winery.

*Currently, MD has 22 wineries. 18 of them exclusively use these 2 authorities to distribute and sell their product. Together the 18 wineries combined sell about 60,000 gallons of wine annually through these 2 methods. Four other wineries utilize wholesalers. Those 4 sell approximately 100,000 gal. of wine annually.

*On Feb. 2, 2006, the Comptroller issued an administrative Advisory that eliminates Maryland wineries ability to sell directly to restaurants and retailers under current Maryland law on March 31, 2006.

*Every business plan for new and small growing wineries includes the ability to sell their products directly to restaurants & retailers. Losing this authority would strike a devastating blow to the growing MD wine industry, deter any new wineries from opening and possibly cause smaller wineries to close.

*In response to the suit and the Comptrollers action, legislation will be filed to preserve MD Wineries’ authorities in a constitutional manner with minimum disruption to the three-tiered system. The legislation will:

Create a new limited wine wholesalers license;

Allow small wine manufacturers (both in-state and out-of-state) to receive this license;

Allow the new licensees to deliver their wine directly to restaurants and retailers in Maryland; and

Prohibit the use of third parties (Fedx, UPS, etc.) as a delivery mechanism.

*The delivery requirement will economically limit the use of the new license to small wineries whose locations are close enough to Maryland for delivery to make business sense.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please contact your legislators and let them know that you favor this legislation to keep the Maryland wine industry viable. You can go to www.marylandwine.com for information about this issue. You can also locate your legislators from that site, as well as keep up with all the current information about it. At this time, the Senate bill, sponsored by Senator Thomas “Mac” Middleton of Charles County, has a number (SB812), but the House bill does not have a number yet. For the House bill, refer to the bill being sponsored by Delegate Virginia Clagett. This legislation is essential to seeing that Maryland Wineries grow and thrive.

Friends of Maryland Wineries has started an electronic petition, in an effort to show our elected officials that Maryland voters care about this issue (and support our local wineries), and ask they co-sponsor legislation being introduced by Senator Thomas “Mac”. This legislation is essential to seeing that Maryland wineries grow and thrive. Please take 1 minute to follow the above link and sign the petition. Your name and county of residence are the most important fields of information to display to our Legislators, and your email address will remain private ( select that option).

Thank you for your support, and please email this link to the petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/mdwine06/petition.html) to your contacts in the State of Maryland (friends, family, etc.) because we need a lot of signatures to show our elected officials they need to give attention to this issue. Thanks again.