A huge victory for Ct wine consumers. SB-647 Shipping legaliized ! YES !

After several years of going through the legislature it appears that Ct is about to become the 15th state where it is legal to ship into from out of state retailers, auction houses, wine clubs. etc. Especially considering that our prices and selection were not always the best, this is huge. I have been following the progress of the bill and although it had been moving forward I was skeptical it would ever happen. If my understanding is correct all it needs is the governors signature and its done. It looks like it will take effect July 1st. Can’t wait. I am terrified on the effect on my charge card though as now, as I will be able to most likely soon be able to take advantage of the many great deals K & L offers on sale.

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Can retailers ship out tho from CT?

Good question Charlie
I have read the bill over several times and it does not address shipping OUT of the state. I am certainly no attorney so I can’t answer the question, but my opinion would be that IF the state that you wanted to ship to is one of the 14 other states that allow out of state retailers to ship into then it would be legal.

This one I have been following for a long time. In recent years it has been tried and failed because of the middle tier distribution lobbyists and to my surprise to some small extent the CT Farm Bureau Association(CFBA) who thought they were protecting state farm wineries. At an agriculture meeting this past winter I had a sit down with the Prez of CFBA and said him straight. Gave him several explanations why outside sales would only spur inside state sales. In addition I mentioned that as a small vineyard and winery owner access to wines not found in our state is often required to benchmark our practices and make us better. Also sent emails to my reps and the chairpersons of the committee responsible giving the same explanation. State bills get bundled early on and unless you’re astute that bill number changes and is hard to follow. That happened this year when several alcohol bills got lumped together of which the biggest and strongest producing group, the breweries and cider makers, pounded the pavement to suggest the existing laws impeded business growth and new job creation. In the end I think the idea was to put breweries, wineries, distillers, cideries , and meaderies on the same legal business footing. This will be a good day. Did I say that I just received a case of wines today from a NY state retailer?

Suggestions for wine storage services that could be used to receive wines in southern CT (i.e. Greenwich, Stamford?) legally from reciprocal states?

Governor already signed it.

Ink’s not even dry and thinking of poaching the remaining Juge stash? Shame…

Fantastic to see some progress instead of regression

Yes, but there aren’t many worth shopping with.

But that could change. This would be a business opportunity for outfits in the NE that want to establish a web presence

CT pricing controls (and crappy distributors) would mean that they would suck just as bad as the existing stores.

Finally.
K & L can stop torturing me now.