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The wine industry is one of the most highly regulated sectors in the world, on international, national, state, and even local levels. This is because wine, while essentially liquid food made from natural farm products (primarily grapes, but also some other fruits, and even honey), contains alcohol.
Being regulated is fine, and even as it should be, since alcohol can be abused and misused, as well as used responsibly, as we encourage. All we ask is that the regulators also be reasonable and responsible.
Happily, New York now has them. This week, State Liquor Authority Chairman Dennis Rosen, Special Counsel Thomas Donohue, and Licensing Director Kerri O'Brien spent two days in the Finger Lakes meeting with upstate wine producers and visiting wineries of different sizes (Canandaigua Wine Company, by far the largest; Red Tail Ridge Winery, one of the smallest and "greenest"; and Anthony Road Winery, one of the longest running mid-sized wineries) to get an idea of our industry's people, products, and promise. (They attended a similar meeting months ago on Long Island.)
The highlight of the trip was a two-hour power point presentation by Tom Donohue to an overflow crowd (60 people, in a room designed for 40) punctuated by helpful comments from Chairman Rosen and Ms. O'Brien at different times, and plenty of questions from winery representatives. The Q&A-based power point was masterfully structured to provide simple answers to New York's archaic, complex, and often self-contradictory Alcohol Beverage Control law (or ABC, but it's not as simple as that!), first created right after Repeal of Prohibition and then amended hundreds of times in piecemeal fashion.
Chairman Rosen often used the phrase "carve out" to describe exceptions to law that were created to help stimulate the growth of the New York wine industry, such as allowing farm wineries to act as manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of their product when the traditional "tied house" law prevents any overlap. He also mentioned that the Authority supports legislation which, within the currently mandated framework of promoting temperance and the public safety, would add economic development as a consideration in regulation. And, in response to a winery comment about how long it takes to get a license, the Chairman said that when he arrived on the job there was a backlog of over 3,000 applications while today the backlog for upstate wineries is...zero.
We all know that the grape and wine industry is truly an economic development engine, generating more than $3.76 billion annually in economic benefits to New York's economy. In addition, the wine industry is the fastest growing part of New York's agricultural and tourism industries, and perhaps of all economic sectors. But to have the State's top regulator acknowledge and embrace that is enlightenment indeed.
This is not a flash in the pan. I opened the conference by saying that during the past year in my dealings with the SLA (which are frequent, often on behalf of wineries which wish to remain anonymous) I have noticed a dramatic change in responsiveness and attitude that is now more oriented toward partnership and understanding rather than power and punishment; and that I had heard the same from many wineries who have had the same experience. This conference confirmed that, in spades.
It has not always been this way. A few years ago, a Wine Grape Task Force of industry representatives (including me) convened by the Department of Agriculture & Markets under former Commissioner Patrick Hooker had, among other recommendations: "Abolish the SLA." And New York's ABC law certainly still has its flaws and inadequacies, partially explaining why the State is high in total sales (due to population density) but low in per capita adult consumption. But at least the attitude of the SLA has improved.
On the federal level, the Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) has long and consistently had that attitude, but on the state level it has been rare, and a long time coming. We are glad it is here, and look forward to working closely with the new, enlightened SLA to make sure our industry stays in compliance with the law. |
