FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 22, 2008

Additional information: Jan Harker  (812) 988-9902 

SENATE BILL COULD CHANGE WINE LAWS IN INDIANA

VinSense President Calls for Modernizing Shipping Laws

      Bloomington – Indiana Senate Bill 0337, authored by Senator Brent Steele (R-Bedford) could change the way Hoosier consumers obtain some of their wines. The bill, referred to as “Direct Wine Sales,” was given a first reading on January 14 before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Public Policy, and Interstate Cooperation.

      Support for the bill originated with VinSense, a newly-organized state-wide wine consumer advocacy group. VinSense President Dr. Allen Dale Olson, a retired civil servant, said from his Jackson County home that the bill largely reflects the intent of a Federal District Court decision of last August rendering much of current Indiana wine law “unconstitutional.”  He said that his organization has filed a “Friend of the Court Brief” with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in opposition to the appeal of that decision filed by the state Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco.

      Olson said the provisions of SB 0337 would not significantly impact on wholesaler-retailer operations. What “our” bill does says Olson “is remove the monopoly held by wholesalers so that consumers can have access to wineries of their choice, especially to small boutique wineries whose products are too limited in quantity to interest wholesalers or deemed unprofitable by them.”

      Until last August’s court decision, Indiana consumers could buy wines only from retail outlets, which could buy wines only from a wholesale distributor. With more than 5,000 wineries in the U.S., wholesalers could offer only a very tiny fraction of all wines produced. Retailers can shelve only a very tiny percentage of wines available to them through the wholesalers. In short, Olson says, “Hoosiers have been denied access to more than 95% of all wines produced in America, let alone the rest of the world.”

       The Steele bill supports the decision of the Federal District Court by removing a requirement from the state statute that buyers must actually visit a winery in order to buy directly from the winery. It also provides very specific controls on shipments to assure that minors cannot receive shipments and that buyers cannot avoid the payment of appropriate state taxes as well as clarification of licensing and reporting requirements.

      “This bill gives us a great agenda item at our upcoming membership meeting,” said VinSense Vice-President Lou Melillo, owner of Columbus-based Audio Technologies, Inc. The VinSense meeting is scheduled for February 4 in the FarmBloomington restaurant in Bloomington at 6:30 pm. VinSense has more than 2,000 members from Fort Wayne to Evansville and is entirely independent of wineries or the wine trade. “By the end of the year, we expect to have at least 10,000 members – all of them voters,” said Olson.