Living in New Jersey, it is often hard to get “direct from winery” shipments. I don’t know why these restrictions exist but assume that it is some law/regulation. For some wines I love, I am forced to ship to my friends in NY or PA and this is quite inconvenient for my friends and I. I have the ear of one of our legislators and would like to provide him with details and rationale which would make the case to enable wineries to ship direct.
Can any of you suggest resources for me to access which could help me identify what is preventing shipments and a rationale for making the change?
I am no longer in NJ, but shipped a lot of wine to myself from wineries for many years. It is way improved from where it once was. My recollection from 3 years ago is: larger wineries are blocked from DTC. I am i sure of the threshold, but it might be 100,000 or 200,000 cases per year production and the assumption by the state that you can get the wine via the normal tiered system, hence retail in the store. For smaller entities that may not be otherwise represented, DTC is allowed IF they get the licenses required, which many (most?) do. At least this my take of the situation, and I may have some things wrong. Bottom line: I did not have many issues with DTC in NJ. For DTC from larger wineries (Beringer for me) I had relatives near by in either NY or PA, or used a fedex ( Walgreens) or UPS drop over the state line.
I Would say many wineries can ship to NJ. Some choose not to I guess for paperwork reasons and fees.
So that 1st hurdle would be to address these barriers versus other states. Maybe talk to some of the wineries that ship to NJ so they can spell out the requirements of NJ vs NY vs CT vs PA. Then talk to the wineries that you wished shipped to NJ and ask why they don’t
Didn’t realize that there was a big volume exclusion but in the 3 tier world it makes total sense. Distributors don’t want anyone cutting in to their volume and they likely have the lobby clout to squash any changes to that side of the equation.
Keep fighting the good fight for us New Jerseyans.
Domaine can be of help for you. DM me and I can better explain, but we have a full scale service that brings wines from our Napa facility to Edison, NJ all year long, and completely temperature controlled the whole way, so a significantly safer option than a common carrier. It’s not a fast service (usually takes about 30-45 days), but certainly a safe one, and also an eco-friendly one as we help eliminate more styrofoam shippers.
We can also help with K&L purchases too, since that comes up all the time.
Reason is the state of NJ wants a winery to put a bond security of $5000 (interest free) in their account in perpetuity, to act as buffer for tax collection on the wine. On top if this you still have all of the permit licensing fees etc, so that’s why many smaller wineries avoid NJ. NY is much easier to license for, so many including myself, figure that many people have family or friends in NY where they might be able to pick up.
I so wish all alcohol laws would be federally legislated. It’s such a huge pain all of this, but there’s no way around it.
This makes total sense Adam. This really squeezes the small producer. Imagine if all 50 states wanted this. A small winery would have to come up with $250 grand.
Mark - From a legality standpoint, might a winery be able to argue they are singled out vs other interstate merchants where NJ doesn’t require a bond for their goods?
Retailers are a whole nother ball of wax. I think it’s harder as a retailer to ship in to NJ. The NJ law is technically “easier” for wineries. NJ wants the reciprocity for NJ wine makers to ship to other states.
Retailers from outside NJ are bucking the 3 tier. And NJ distributors lobby extensively against any outside infringement. This is true in other states too. NY is not that easy to ship into either from a retailer outside the state
Let’s keep this thread to wineries, as out of state wine retailers have different nuances
My reply to Mark was for direct shipment of wine from wineries
Retail is different and would have to be addressed separately and from a different angle. UCC and interstate commerce seems to play more directly as well as state by state alcohol laws. Jay Hack has a thread on this. Not sure if it’s NY related or nationwide.
Winery shipping in to NJ is somewhat relaxed compared to retail. Since it is allowed and the barrier is a $5,000 bond, I was questioning why a paper clip seller from Indiana doesn’t have to put up a $5,000 bond. Maybe they do
Murphy’s focus is on restaurant liquor rules, specifically limitations on number of licenses per capita. He thinks the economy can grow by increasing the number of licenses
I don’t think his agenda includes making it easier for out of state wineries to ship in. It’s already “easy” with the barrier seeming to be the $5,000 deposit in perpetuity
True-ish. His focus right now is on adding more restaurant licenses, and that appears to be a much bigger hill to climb than he thought. I haven’t seen any mention on shipping laws though.
We hold a DTC license for NJ and the face value of the bond is $1,000 but you don’t pay that. The annual permit is expensive however - $1,000+ annually, plus you have to register and pay a fee for each label of each wine you will sell in the state. There are also reporting requirements and monthly price posting. We hold a wholesaler license for our wines in the state also.