It’s Not Easy Getting Wine To Your Front Door

By Andrew Staub | PA Independent

Wine connoisseurs in 30 states can buy their vino the 21st-century way: From Amazon.

Pennsylvania merlot lovers can’t count themselves as so lucky, thanks to stringent regulations that largely bar the direct shipment of wine to residents in the Keystone State, where the government has kept an iron grip on the booze industry since the repeal of Prohibition.

While it’s not impossible to have wine delivered to your doorstep in Pennsylvania, consumers must know how to navigate a bureaucratic system. Even then, they have limited choices when it comes to finding a fermented beverage that pairs well with their artisan cheeses.

Retailers cannot ship to Pennsylvania, and most wineries across the country don’t even look at Pennsylvania as a place where they can legally and efficiently ship wine, “so they simply don’t,” said Tom Wark, executive director of the American Wine Consumer Coalition in Washington, D.C.

“Pennsylvania is considered a state where no one wants to do business in terms of direct-shipping,” he said.

Legislative efforts to relax Pennsylvania’s direct-shipping laws have stalled, even when considered independently from ongoing attempts to privatize the state’s monopoly on liquor and wine sales.

The state House passed a direct-shipping bill earlier this year, but Wark said it still falls short, largely because it does not allow retailers into the game.

The direct-shipping myth

In most cases, Pennsylvanians must buy their wine and liquor from about 600 state-owned stores.

When those shops don’t carry a wine that a customer wants, they can’t just log onto Total Wine’s website and queue up a special order. The wine, beer and liquor retailer has an apologetic message for Pennsylvanians trying to order booze online: “Sorry! We cannot ship these items.”

So what then?  There’s another way, as long as customers don’t mind spending a few more bucks and letting the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board playing middle man.

First, the customer has to search the PLCB’s product catalog to make sure the particular wine isn’t sold in the state stores. If it’s not, then he or she can order it from a licensed direct wine shipper.

That can be expensive. The direct wine shipper adds a shipping charge and a $4.50 handling fee, in addition to charging Pennsylvania’s 18 percent liquor tax and 6 percent sales tax.

Customers have to pick up the wine at a state store, and they cannot buy more than 9 liters of wine a month from a single direct shipper.

The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board describes the process as direct shipping, but that’s a misnomer that only further muddles Pennsylvania’s confusing protocols, said Steve Gross, vice president of state relations at the Wine Institute, an advocacy and policy group representing the wine industry in California.

“That’s a special order to the store. That’s not the home delivery that everybody is accustomed to in the other states,” he said.

Getting wine to your front door

Despite the PLCB’s skewed definition of direct shipping, there is a way to have wine shipped directly to the front door. The key is identifying the state’s limited wineries, which produce 200,000 gallons or less of alcoholic ciders, wine and wine coolers a year.

Both in-state and out-of-state wineries can obtain a limited winery license that allows them to sell their products at their own retail locations and to sell to the PLCB. They can also take mail, telephone and online orders and ship their wine directly to private homes.

That’s how a bottle of Abe’s Apple Wine from Hauser Estates Winery in Biglerville can end up on a UPS truck and eventually the porch of a home the next county over (as long as somebody 21 and over is home to sign for the delivery). It’s also how Thorn Hill Vineyards, which grows its grapes in California’s Napa Valley, opened a tasting room in Lancaster.

“It’s the way around,” said Carl Helrich, the owner of Allegro Winery in York County.

The owner of a limited winery license, Allegro can ship wine directly to its customers’ homes in Pennsylvania. It also just obtained a license to ship directly into Maryland.

To sweeten the deal, Allegro offers free shipping for orders of 12, 24 and 36 or more bottles. Otherwise, the fee is $20.

“Ever since Amazon came along, everyone loves free shipping,” Helrich said.

Ken Hadley, owner of the Tuscarora Mt. Winery in Franklin County, can also ship wine, but said it sometimes doesn’t make sense for customers to do it.  Shipping laws on the books in other states can complicate the process. Plus, it can be expensive, Hadley said.

“We try to tell the customers, ‘You know, it’s a lot cheaper to just come and get it then it is to ship it to you,’” Hadler said.

Another bill on the move

There was a time when Pennsylvania barred out-of-state wineries from shipping their vintages directly to customers here, even though the state allowed small local wineries to do it.

The PLCB eventually extended the limited winery license to out-of-state wineries after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that in-state and out-of-state wineries must be treated equally when it came to shipping.

Still, Gross described the limited winery process as like “putting a square peg in a round hole,” while Wark said the process to obtain such a license is confusing and onerous for out-of-state wineries.

Both Wark and Gross cited New Hampshire, where direct shippers beyond the state border can simply get a permit to send wine, beer and liquor to residents, as an example of a better system.

“There’s a model out there that can be replicated, and we’re hoping Pennsylvania does that,” Gross said.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Curt Sonney, R-Erie, has pursued direct-shipping legislation for several years to no avail. This year is no different, as his House Bill 189 would allow any winery to obtain a permit to ship any quantify of wine straight to the customer.

Sonney said he’s heard about the issue from dedicated wine enthusiasts, who often find something they like when traveling or on vacation.

“They’d like to ship it home and they can’t,” Sonney said.

The PLCB does not comment on pending legislation.

Pennsylvania would still charge the 18 percent liquor tax and the 6 percent sales tax on shipped wine under Sonney’s legislation. That raises some concerns, considering fine wine can easily cost as much as $100 a bottle. Even the taxes on a $20 bottle of wine can be double that of another state, Gross said.

“We don’t want a bill to be passed that won’t be utilized because the tax is too high,” Gross said.

Wark also said Pennsylvania’s exorbitant taxes as a competitive barrier, but cited another issue: Sonney’s still bill doesn’t address the retail end of shipping.

And that means no shopping from Amazon or Total Wine, a restriction that Wark said effectively bans the shipping of imported products sold by retailers. It also closes the door on wine-of-the-month clubs and collectible and rare wines sold at auction houses, and even limits the choice of kosher wines, he said.

“The fact of the matter is lawmakers really don’t care,” Wark said.