There is a move afoot to get a wine shipping bill in Massachusetts acted on before the end of the year or early next year. This would be HUGE improvement for MA wine consumers.
The bill is H.294(Sponsored by Rep. Speliotis)
The bill as currently written would allow MA consumers to have up to 24 cases per winery, per year shipped to them from out-of-state wineries. However, the bill as currently written bans MA consumers from having any imported wines shipped to them from out of state since it would ban consumers from having wine shipped to them from out-of-state wine stores.
The American Wine Consumer Coalition is working to see the bill amended and passed. Other organizations are working to see the bill passed. There is a push to get the job done before the end of the year or early next year. The Governor of MA has said he would sign a direct shipping bill.
FIRST STEP: Get the bill heard in the MA Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.
If you reside in MA (or even don’t) it would behoove you to email the chairman of the committee ( Thomas.P.Kennedy@masenate.gov) and request he schedule a hearing for H.294 and support an amendment that would allow MA wine consumers to have domestic AND IMPORTED wines shipped to them.
Getting word to any other friends you have in MA would be a great idea too.
I don’t know the politics of this - is including imported wines (or shipment from wine stores) a problem politically (e.g., MA wine stores want to be protected from big out-of-state sellers)?
I would worry whether the bill is less likely to be passed if it allows for shipments from out of state stores.
It might be better to get half a loaf than nothing at all.
No decent MA store is looking for “protection” from out of state retailers. We ARE looking to expand our customer base to 50 states, so opening up shipping in both directions is A-OK by me.
Someone might want to tell the sponsor of this legislation that it doesn’t address the current problem in direct-from-winery shipment to Massachusetts. Chapter 138, Section 19F, as interpreted in the Family Winemakers litigation, already permits any out-of-state winery to get a direct shipping license.
Out-of-state wineries have trouble shipping to Massachusetts not because of licensing issues but because of shipping issue. The Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission has hung up UPS and FedEx with a requirement that every vehicle carrying alcoholic beverages be separately registered and licensed with ABCC. UPS and FedEx can handle this for intrastate shipments, because they get licenses for a certain number of vehicles and use those for shipments that include alcohol. But they can’t economically pay for the license for every vehicle in their fleet, and for interstate shipments they don’t know in advance which vehicle will be carrying a shipment including alcohol across the border into Mass. So they throw up their hands and refuse to ship any alcohol into Massachusetts in order to avoid fouling up compliance and getting fined or worse.
I think Al was referring to State Senator Thomas Kennedy, referenced as the Chair of the Committee in Tom’s initial post, not the Deceased Senator Ted Kennedy.
C’mon people, i don’t care if i need to contact the dead or alive senators Kennedy, as long as i can help get some kind of legislation to help us get wine to MA instead of sending it to friends / family / UPS boxes in almost every other flippin New England state to eventually find its way to my cellar and our taste buds!
i hear you - just took 5 hours of driving out of my day today to pick up a single six pack of wine from ups! not amused! i will definitely be writing in.
Here is an update I received from Tom Kennedy in response to my email on this bill:
I have heard from an overwhelming number of Massachusetts residents on this piece of legislation and appreciate your views. With over 200 bills before the Committee, we have done our best to schedule all bills for a hearing in an orderly and timely fashion. To that end, I wanted to reach out directly to let you know that a hearing on H. 294 has been scheduled for Tuesday, November 12 at 1:00 p.m. in Gardner Auditorium at the State House.
I look forward to an open and healthy dialogue on H. 294, and am available for questions or comments at any time.
Cheers all. Keep your fingers crossed this moves ahead.
Anyone living in Massachusetts SHOULD reach out to committee members hearing the bill and at least do so via email and urge them to pass a bill that allows you to have wine shipped to you from out of state wineries and retailers. If you do this, reference Bill H. 294.
The email addresses of all the committee members of the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection are: