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Free the Grapes?

(Editors Note: since this article's publication, the U.S. Supreme Court has finally relaxed the rules for interstate wine purchases.For more information, see A Big Win for Small Wineries. )

You've come across the perfect gift! A wine club that ships a gourmet wine selection to your mother-in-law once a month. If you are going online to join you may think you've found the perfect gift... but hold on before you click to order.

That innocent gift could have some potentially horrible results.

If you live in the United States, you may be breaking the law. In many states, selling...and buying...wine online is illegal. Depending on your relationship with your mother-in-law, you may want to skip the wine and order another gift.

It may seem odd that you can go online and order anything from a cartful of groceries to a car, but a bottle of wine is off limits. What's going on?

There are two schools of thought.

Small wineries and wine lovers would like the opportunity to sell and buy wine online. Normally, you'll save some money on the wines you like. You can get your hands on those rare offerings from the vintner. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said customers could save more than 20 percent on some of their wine purchases and obtain wine varieties often unavailable at their local stores if they could be ordered directly from wineries or distributors in other states.

Wouldn't you like another few bottles from the Mendocino Valley where you ordered that wine when you were on vacation? Wholesale distributors are just not interested in carrying every bottle that all of the smaller and family run wineries product. There's no money in it.

If you could buy directly from the winery it would help them stay in business and make your special wine easy to order.

What could be the harm in that?

Well it seems that people under twenty one can easily buy alcohol online. All of the protections that are in effect at retail stores are based on being able to check a person's ID. There's no way to do an ID check on line.

Selling alcohol to minors is not something anyone wants to encourage. So it makes sense to ban sales of wine online. Right?

Well, it's not that simple.

The Free the Grapes people argue that there are checks. Most alcohol sites require the visitors to click a box that says they are over 21. Besides that, the carriers who deliver alcohol are required to get a signature from someone over twenty one when they deliver the package. While this system may not work perfectly, neither does the ID checking in retail stores. Where in the US is there a community that doesn't have underage drinking? Busy store owners are no more likely to check IDs all of the time than busy UPS drivers. While no one condones selling alcohol to minors, the banning of all alcohol sales seems to be overkill.

So the real reason is economics.

If you can buy wine online, states with a high alcohol tax worry that online sales will cut into their revenues and wholesale distributors and retailers worry about their business getting stolen by wineries selling directly to customers.

The winery can price the bottles without markups for the middlemen and undersell the liquor retailer. Wineries don't have to share the cost of advertising and stocking someone else's label in the stores. The wines sold directly to you online are a profitable way for wineries to do business.

Inevitably, the two groups battle with the consumer in the middle. States that do allow online sales have not seen an incredible increase in drunken teens or lost tax revenues, but that doesn't seem to make a difference. The arguments have degenerated into 'save our children' or 'free the grapes'.

If you agree that you should be able to order a bottle of wine without fear of jail and you live in one of the states that will not allow you to shop online, you may want to send your government officials a note to let them know.

If enough consumers get vocal about it, maybe you'll be able to get that wine for your mother-in-law after all.