Indiana legislative update: Wine shipments.

There’s a legislative update of the wine shipping bill posted at the Indiana Law Blog:

Ind. Law - More on: Wine shipping resolution not dead?

As an incentive to remain engaged in the legislature’s consideration of this matter, ILB quotes a chilling passage from a story in the Madison Courier:

The “poison pill provision” says that if an exception to the three-tier system is deemed unconstitutional or invalid, then the state will limit rather than expand exceptions to the method. Simply put, if the state determines a winery or brewery is not following the three-tier system, then it will enhance the three-tier-system, and make regulations barring wineries from selling their products without the use of a wholesaler. The provision also could apply to wine tasting rooms in wineries.

If the provision passes, small wineries would be affected because wine tasting rooms would not fall within the parameters of the three-tier system.

According to Linda Jackson, a publicist for Indiana wineries, the “poison pill provision” would kill small Indiana wineries.

And if that were the case, would our small breweries be far behind?

Curmudgeon says: The three-tier system itself is unconstitutional, and it seems shameful to buttress the indefensible by running small business out of existence.