—National Association of Wine Retailers Urges Amendments or Opposition—
(DOVER, Delaware)—Since 2022, more than 240,000 imported wines have been approved by the federal government for sale in the United States. This number does not include the many thousands of imported wines, including rare, collectible, and small production imported wines that were approved for sale prior and are still available at various wine retailers. None of these wines will be available to Delaware consumers via direct shipment under the newly proposed law that allows shipments of wine to Delaware wine lovers.
The National Association of Wine Retailers (NAWR) opposes Delaware House Bill 187 due to its exclusion of wine retailers from the shipping provisions in HB 187. With only domestic wineries given the privilege to ship under this legislation, the bill is wildly anti-consumer and anti-free trade.
Additionally, HB 187 appears to be little more than a gift to opponents of wine shipping. Although the bill allows wineries to ship up to 1,800 cases into the state annually, if more than 200 cases are shipped by a winery, the cost of the shipping license increases from $400 to $3,600! Finally, the bill provides that if a winery already has a wholesaler in the state, it may not direct ship at all and if a winery does ship more than 1,800 cases to Delawareans in a single year, that winery is barred from direct shipment and must retain a wholesaler as its only way of entering the Delaware market.
“HB 187 is by far one of the worst, most exclusionary, and most anti-consumer wine shipping bills we have seen introduced in decades,” said Tom Wark, executive director of NAWR.” “Barring Delaware wine lovers from accessing hundreds of thousands of wines by banning retailers from shipping along with wineries is a purely protectionist move that only helps the huge union interests and state wholesalers.”
Among the wines that Delawareans would be barred from receiving under this bill due to its exclusion of retailers are Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, Port, Sherry, Rioja, Argentine Malbec, German Riesling, Canadian Ice Wine, Rhone Blends, New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, and Australian Shiraz.
“In the year 2025, consumers expect to be able to buy and receive shipments of the legal products they want and not to be banned from receiving certain wines so that massive campaign contributors can be protected from competition,” said Wark. “Legislation of this kind ought to put consumers and free trade first, not the interests of the loudest lobbyists with the deepest pockets.”
NAWR is urging Delaware lawmakers to offer amendments to HB 187 to make it pro-consumer and pro-business or oppose the bill altogether.
# # #
CONTACT:
Tom Wark
[email protected] • 707-246-6451