Staff Photo by Tim Barber
Antony Eason and Mandy Riggins shop at the Georgia Winery in Ringgold, Ga. Mr. Eason and Ms. Riggins are home for the holidays from London.
By Joan Garrett
Staff Writer
It's not that Steve Hunt minds out-of-state visitors, he just doesn't think people should have to drive 1,000 miles for a bottle of his wine.
"That is absolutely ridiculous," he said, remembering a woman who had driven from Florida for a bottle of his apple wine this Christmas.
In the last two years since Mr. Hunt opened his winery near the Ocoee River in Cleveland, Tenn., business has gone pretty well. This year, his one-man vineyard, Ocoee Winery Inc., which sells apple, peach, blueberry and muscadine wines, grossed over $400,000 making 4,000 to 5,000 gallons of wine a year.
"It's pretty lucrative," he said. "I drive a Porsche now if that tells you anything."
Yet, he said, a state law that he hopes will change prevents him from making even more money.
Vineyard owners in Tennessee can't ship wine in or out of state. Vintners such as Mr. Hunt claim that if they could, they could increase sales at least 25 percent.
A growing number of wine makers and consumers in Georgia and Tennessee are waiting and hoping their state direct shipping laws, which prohibit the shipping of wine and the violation of which is a felony, will change in the next legislative session, wine makers say.
Middlemen fight change
In both states, direct-to-consumer shipping measures proposed this year were successfully opposed by distributors and wholesalers who don't want to be cut out as middlemen for the wine and liquor industries, said Tennessee State Sen. Paul Stanley, R-Germantown.
Other contentions against changing the law, he said, are that a lack of oversight would open the way to underage drinking and the loss of tax dollars.
Still, Sen. Stanley said he plans to propose a direct-shipping bill in the next session.
Patty Prouty, owner of Georgia Winery in Ringgold, Ga., said she hopes that legislators eventually will get together and say direct shipping is the will of the people.
"In a way it's not fair for some to be able to ship and other not be," she said.
Much of Mrs. Prouty's time this season has been spent explaining those restrictions to unknowing consumers.
"We can't deliver," she said tersely over the phone to a customer. "You have to come and pick it up."
Georgia Winery, one of the largest wineries in Georgia, has been open for nearly 25 years and, making 66,000 gallons a year, she said she can't complain about business.
Sales have grown steadily each year, and direct-to-consumer shipping could hasten that growth, she said.
"If we were able to have an online store, I am not sure we could keep up with demand," she said.
But ready or not, Mrs. Prouty said shipping laws are coming to the forefront as southern wines continue to grow in popularity.
Muscadines, a grapevine species native to Southeast and known for its sweet and fruity taste, is gaining recognition from consumers, she said.
In the last seven years the number of wineries in Georgia and Tennessee has nearly doubled, reflecting a national curiosity for local wines and flavors, said Bill Nelson, president of WineAmerica, the national association of wineries.
Pressure from growing industry
The move to ship wine directly to consumers began in the 1980s when several states, predominantly in the West, made reciprocal arrangements with each other. Since then American vineyards have grown in size and scope.
In the 1960s there were 300 wineries in the U.S., and now there are over 5,000, said Jeremy Benson, executive director of Free the Grapes, a Napa, Calif.-based coalition of consumers and wineries pushing for direct shipping.
"When you are talking about wine country you aren't just talking about Napa Valley," he said.
Many small farm wineries have succeeded as a part of the tourism industry, and tourism has driven the move to direct shipping, he said.
Mr. Hunt of Ocoee Winery Inc. agrees. Most people who request for him to ship his wine were introduced to it during a visit to the Ocoee River.
Since the days of state agreements, 33 states have enacted bills allowing direct shipping to consumers.
But there are still many states where shipping is severely limited or prohibited.
Tennessee vintners cannot ship anywhere. Shipping laws in Georgia are among the most complicated in the country, according to observers. Wineries that are not represented by a wholesaler can ship a limited amount, according to the Wine Institute.
Confusion and peril
Mrs. Prouty said a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which said states that allowed in-state wine makers to ship within the border had to allow out-of-state wine makers to ship their products in, added another layer of confusion.
"States have the right to regulate in their borders, but it is unconstitutional for them to discriminate against a winery because of where they are located," he said. "What the ruling said was, if you are going to ship you have to be fair about it, but it doesn't say you have to allow shipping."
Though both Mrs. Prouty and Mr. Hunt said they have known of people shipping their wine in Georgia and Tennessee, Mr. Benson said vineyard owners should be extremely careful.
Businesses that ship against state law can lose their federally issued wine-making permit in addition to facing criminal charges.
"They would be crazy to do that," he said. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense."
E-mail Joan Garrett at jgarrett@timesfreepress.com
Tennessee
2000 - 15 wineries
2007 - 29 wineries
Georgia
2000 - 9 wineries
2007 - 20 wineries
Source: WineAmerica
