Texas state crackdown on online wine sales squelches shipments to Lone Star State, down 30 percent in one quarter

For years the Texas Legislature was persuaded (with the able assistance of the liquor lobby) to block out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to customers, until they were persuaded otherwise in 2005 by the Supreme Court.

And while we are fairly awash in wine sold to us by retailers here, the Legislature chose not to allow for outside retailers like Wine.com any way of obtaining a permit to ship wine that otherwise could be shipped legally and directly by the wineries themselves.

With the cooperation of the major shipping companies, investigators for the Beverage Commission began blocking wine mailings. Shipments dropped from roughly 51,000 in March to 35,000 in June, according to the story.

This prompted Wine.com this month to tell its 30,000 customers in Texas it was temporarily suspending its online bootlegging.

But in case the point of a law directed at what might be about 1 percent of the state’s total wine market has been missed, Rich Bergsund, CEO for Wine.com, says he hopes to satisfy our state regulators by setting up a distribution warehouse in Houston.

Sounds like a celebration for an economic stimulus plan for Houston and a state revenue generator is in order. Garcon, bottles of fully-permitted, legislatively-approved, state-retailed wine for everyone!

Photo of wine rack by flickr user marcusjroberts, used via a Creative Commons license.