NY SLA looking to slay NY restaurant wine lists

Looking to change the law which currently allows restaurants to source wine from private collectors. Soon it may be time for restaurants to look for a loophole or become very pedestrian when it comes to wine offerings.

Thoughts?

My thought is that Wineberserkers should file a formal comment letter in opposition to the proposed interpretation. We’ve certainly got enough lawyers from New York that we can put it together. We should take the position that protectionism of an industry that needs no help and that rakes in millions by raking residents and tourists over the coals does not good for the economy of the State of New York, costs jobs, mitigates against raising the minimum wage for restaurant workers because it increases restaurant costs, and relegates New York to a second rate position in the world of culinary destinations despite the fact that it is known throughout the world as the Empire State. Off the top of my head in under two minutes, so sorry if that’s not good enough yet. I will have one of my interns figure out whether this is required to go through the State Administrative Procedures aCT.

By the way - I think we should not mention the incredible level of corruption resulting from the massive political contributions made by the middle tier of the distribution chain to legislators in New York because it might be deemed to be in bad taste to remind people about the Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos corruption trials currently under way.

First of all, I think this affects a very small number of restaurants in NYC so I don’t see this as that big a deal. Also I think most private collections go to auction and not directly to a restaurant. And what would prevent a restaurant and private collector making a deal and then have the private collector consign the wine to a retail shop and the deal takes place between the restaurant and retail shop. It would add a frictional cost but shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

This thread would be more fun if we remain outraged.

I just read the advisory. It is made up law. For those of you who read my rant about the Attorney General deciding to make law on Draft Kings and Fan Duel, this is it in spades. The SLA is interpreting the term “private collection” to be limited to only things that are not available through the three tier system, and the statute says no such thing. A private person must own a wine for two years before it is considered part of a private collection, and that is more than enough to avoid loophole creators. Not available through the three tier system is just a made up rule to protect the oligarchs (Constellation) who contribute way too much money to the political system. If you have any doubts about my statements about political contributions, take a look at these numbers on the Constellation PAC.

Thanks for posting this. New York regulators (and politicians) cannot get out of their own way when it comes to “helping” the state.

That’s because you’re from New Jersey where a liquor license is so hard to get that BYO is all over the place.

Seriously, however, I agree that this is not a big deal, but it is a component of endemic corruption in New York politics coupled with over-reaching by the executive branch of government. The SLA even talks about the three tier system in the advisory as though it is a good thing. Some day maybe someone can explain to me why it is a good thing.

Boy oh boy. This is getting to be even more fun. Too bad I have to work for a living. Here is the purpose statement of the statute that permitted private sales of wine from wine collectors:

"§ 1. Legislative findings and purpose. The legislature finds that a growing number of New York state residents are engaged in the collection of wines. These collectors are hindered in divesting themselves of ownership of their property by requirements of the alcoholic beverage control law which restrict trafficking in alcoholic beverages.

"The orderly regulation of trafficking in alcoholic beverages is diminished by the existence of large, privately held collections which, in certain instances, must be sold by their owners. The legislature further finds that sales of such collections have been increasingly made outside of New York state in jurisdictions which allow wine to be sold at auction. This has resulted in a diminution of tax revenues within the state and has made regulation of the alcoholic beverage industry more difficult.

“It is the purpose of this act to take cognizance of the large and growing segment of the wine buying public who have become collectors and to encourage orderly commerce in wines owned by these collectors within the guidelines generally applicable to the sale of alcoholic beverages within the state of New York and further to recognize and encourage the role played in serving the wine buying public by retailers duly licensed to sell liquor and wine for consumption off the premises.”

SLA? Symbionese Liberation Army?

I like Jay’s suggestion of giving our lawyers something to do, because otherwise they tend to post a lot of lawyery stuff all over the other threads.

I assume this is the same authority that tried this:

or this

The New York politicians are such a sleazy group that it is no surprise that WSWA can buy any legislation it wants.

Wealthy collectors selling their wines to restaurants where the wines will be marked up to the stratosphere. Having a really hard time feeling any sympathy for anyone.

This is pretty outrageous stuff, although actual outrage is hard to gin up because this is all just par for the course with these people. It’s obviously a structural problem with the way liquor is regulated though. New York is bad, but it’s hardly alone in terms of corruption/capture by the distributors and complete disregard for the interests of consumers (see, e.g., Illinois). It’s a self-perpetuating problem.

My own state (Maine) has very stupid liquor laws – worse statutes than New York, actually. But the regulators here are much more reasonable. I think it probably has something to do with the political culture and small population. But it also probably has something to do with the fact that the distributor cartel is so powerful here and the wine enthusiast population is so small that the entrenched interests face no meaningful threats to their business from things like out-of-state shipping and personal sales.

My only personal experience is with a not so wealthy heir selling wines they were left to restaurants to cover estate expenses.

Well, I am outraged.

It doesn’t matter who the groups are, using corruption to help special interests block consumers and hurt commerce in the city is a gross misuse of power. Much of the wine is on consignment, which allowed restaurants to offer a good list without a huge financial outlay. This effectively stops that, and the result will ultimately be mediocre lists with a few great ones, where wine is purchased by restaurants, usually hotels with deep pockets, who can afford to go to auction. A friend, a broker, pointed out that is good for him, because he can now buy the wines and take his mark up. Guess what happens to that mark-up and its multiple.

The only people to gain are the bad guys.

Not really. I once went to a restaurant in Maine and I asked about a wine on the list. The sommelier came over, gave me the third degree for about 5 minutes, and then asked me if I wanted to buy X, which was not on the list. I bought the wine and he later explained that it was from private stock that he could not legally sell to me and he asked me a lot of questions about wine to make sure I was not an investigator from the liquor control board trying to trap him. He said they were morons who could never have answered the questions he asked me.

Get over it! All this will do is add more jobs to the work force. Government jobs.

That doesn’t surprise me. I think they are completely clueless about fine wine/spirits. After all, the top selling alcoholic beverage in Maine remains Allen’s Coffee Brandy. But they don’t seem to enforce out-of-state shipping restrictions. And when I brought my wine collection from California, they were surprisingly un-bureaucratic about giving me a permit (which I still had to do by statute). We emailed back and forth a lot, and they were very responsive and included emoticons sometimes. Hard to imagine that interaction in NY.

I do think they probably crack down a restaurants a bit more, given how big an industry that has become in Maine.

They can buy my schrader.