Vintage Story

Epistemological epiphany:
Life must be lived forwards,
but can only be understood backwards
Mercifully, life may be enjoyed sideways!

Full Moon: October, 2005. Allen Dale Olson a/k/a the Pontiff of Palate, Story Inn’s Wine Connoisseur. Copyright 2005 Story Bed & Breakfast, LLP, d/b/a Story Inn, all rights reserved.

HOOSIER DEPRIVATION

Earlier this month, the Pontiff sat with a well-known reporter and a distinguished representative of the state’s largest wine wholesaler. We were tasting and comparing notes on a dozen or so very impressive wines, most of which had been offered by the wholesaler.

The Pontiff, being of a certain age, could easily live out his remaining years comfortable with the majority of the wines we were tasting. But he was haunted by a question the reporter kept rephrasing about the kinds of wines he most enjoyed. It made him recognize to the press that there are an estimated 3,000 wine producers in the United States and who knows how many others in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Africa, and increasingly in Asia.

Looking through the catalog of the wholesaler, we could see that only some 150 wines are available to our retail stores and restaurants. Which means that more than 2,850 American wine producers and a great many wines from elsewhere will never be available in Indiana, because we Hoosiers have access only to wines that wholesalers and distributors deign to make available to us. Our access to our own excellent Hoosier wineries is similarly limited, for no apparent reason.  We cannot, for example, call Chateau Thomas or Oliver Winery, two of Indiana’s most prestigious wineries, to request shipment of some bottles to our home.  We must, by law, go to the winery or to a licensed retailer to get their wines. Too bad for the elderly or the invalid unable to drive to the producer.  Too bad for the producer, who is now losing more than 20 percent of his business because of the Indiana rulings by the Bureau of Alcohol and Tobacco (BAT) which prohibits the direct shipping of wine from point of production to the consumer.  Such is the price we pay to sustain the state-mandated monopolies the wholesalers now enjoy.

It’s not important that many of the wines to which we have no access are wines of a quality we may not like. What is important is that these producers have a product which deserves a place in the market. A close friend describes this BAT ruling as "a medieval resurrection of feudal control over the vassals, a control which included, among other things, what the workers could eat, wear, and in the case of Indiana, drink."  The owner of the Story Inn calls it "the triumph of the business plan of Karl Marx over Adam Smith."

The Pontiff urges readers to call this discrimination against Hoosier wine consumers to the attention of their legislators, a few of which are disposed to propose legislation to overturn the BAT ruling. They need our encouragement.

Vintage Story is an e-newsletter authored by Ole Olson and published by the Story Inn, and is available free of charge to all who appreciate good wine. Vintage Story is published at each full moon. The author and the Story Inn specifically authorize the republication, reprinting and circulation of any issue Vintage Story so long as due credit is given to the author and to the Story Inn (which holds the copyright).

If any newspaper or website desires to make use of any issue of Vintage Story, we do request that you notify us. Thanks, and here's to your health!