I’m writing to alert you to some terrible pending legislation in the NY Assembly and Senate that, if passed, will severely limit the kinds of wines that Chambers Street and other NY retailers can put on our shelves. Assembly Bill 10737 and Senate Bill 5437 would restrict retailers from obtaining our wine selection from any source other than middlemen wholesalers. These bills are sponsored by the big liquor wholesalers who want to eliminate any possible competition.
Currently, retailers in NY may obtain wine from many sources. This helps us find rare, hard to find, unique and older wines that just aren’t available in other states. But if this legislation passes, we will no longer be able to do that and will only be able to sell what the wholesalers choose to offer.
PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW – IT TAKES 30 SECONDS TO WRITE YOUR NY STATE ASSEMBLY-PERSON AND SENATOR. YOUR INPUT AND LETTER WILL HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT IMPACT ON HELPING TO KILL THIS HARMFUL LEGISLATION. Politicians consistently report that – short of sending them money – that messages from their constituents have the most significant influence on their votes. The legislative session is about to end, and the wholesalers hope to slip this by without opposition.
This is what I detest about government. There could not possibly be a rational NYS Assemblyman or Senator who thinks this is right. However, the power of the all mighty dollar corrupts their thinking. Appalling!
You are being too polite. They are bought & paid for. The only way to overcome is to convince them that it’s actually in the disinterest of the wine economy in NY. You need the industry associations like the https://www.nywineindustryassociation.com/ & https://newyorkcraftbeer.com/ on your side and outspending the wholesalers. Otherwise, the wholesalers will eat the retailers for lunch.
thanks for posting. the link really does only take a few seconds to send a form letter… the header in the pre-populated note says “supoort” instead of “support” so I changed that before submitting
At first glance the NY proposal sounds worse than what we have in Ontario. AFIK agents can bring in what they like, just have to pay the imposts. And consumers have to buy by the case. But at least the selection is there, potentially.
The governor wants to run for President. He needs money and support. So he’s selling out the state regarding labor, alcohol, whatever. The people who won’t like it are rendered null by the money the supporters will pay for their customized laws or orders.
If NY screws its wine lovers and passes this bill, will more of these wines become available in the rest of the country, meaning we get more stuff in DC, for example?
The issue is that I buy a lot more back-vintage wines from NY retailers than from those in DC. No one here really offers that stuff as a major aspect of their stock. This would be a horrible result, but they aren’t going to be interested in a letter from non-citizens like me. (Although they presumably get real estate and business tax revenues from retailers in NY that sell to me)
The reason I ask this question is that my recollection is that back in the 1980s NY had much more restrictive wine laws than today. In those days, a lot more of the energy and innovative wine stores, etc., seemed to be here than in NY. [Listen to Levi Dalton’s interview of David Schildknecht on I’ll Drink to That for an idea of what I am talking about.] Now, some of this may be that we had really great people here - David Schildknecht working in retail, Terry Theise really launching his portfolio here, etc. Maybe history would not repeat itself and maybe things changed a lot because DC is really a very conservative market when it comes to wine. And, over time more and more of the innovative people were in NY - people like Lillie at Chambers Street and Joe Dressner as an importer. But, my guess is that somehow or another, if NY closes its market to innovative people, the cutting edge will not disappear, but will reappear elsewhere - if not DC, maybe SF or LA or Chicago or whatever. My sense is that enough people know about the exciting wines from small producers today that the wines will still find their way into the US, but maybe not in NY as much.
None of this is to say that I think the proposed law is good. I think it is horrible. It will hurt the work of the best of breed (the really innovative people in NY) and really is totally anti-American and anti-Free Enterprise. Again, I think the proposal is horrible. Just trying, however, to analyze the impact on the overall market, rather than the impact on individual people (which is terrible).
My submission was accepted, but no confirmation arrived. Given how non-NY residents are directly impacted, their submissions might be deemed relevant and appropriate.
As FYI I’m in CA so no a big impact for me…but my take is that letters can be helpful. But history tells us that entrenched monied interests vs letters not really a fair fight. My advise if want to defeat this find some folks that NYC legislators really don’t want to be associated with that support this initiative and then reframe the debate. Instead of framing as support for customers (vs wholesalers), frame as whether legislators want to align themselves with the same interests of someone really bad.