Tuesday Wine Headlines: Illinoisans ship wine, Hong Kong auction brings in serious dough, Beckam buys wife Napa winery,

Special Interests Overpower The People: Illinoisans Lose the Right to Buy Wine Online: It’s all over the internet and newspapers: Special interest groups in Illinois, through $6,300,000.00 in donations to politicians, have overturned the states policies on shipping wines from both wineries and out of state retailers. In a move that cripples the right to a free market, residents will no longer be able to find rare wines or good deals thanks to a lobby of greedy wholesalers and distributors. Further, there will be a limit imposed on how much wine one individual can receive from any out-of-state winery. What happened to the part of the constitution that says “States may not enact laws that burden out-of-state producers or shippers simply to give a competitive advantage to in-state businesses.” I guess this doesn’t apply to situations in which flip-flopping politicians will cater to whoever has the biggest checkbook. There is a reason Chicago is called the “windy city” and it has little to do with the weather. Read more

Flavored Malt Beverages ARE NOT BEER! Score one for the good guys.

You may remember my reporting on the “Definition of Beer” bill that I sat in on last month in the Maryland State Senate. This topic deals with the classification of “Flavored Malt Beverages” as “Beer” versus “Spirits” or other classifications. This has implications on tax law as well as who is allowed to sell these “Alcopops” (as they are also referred to.

I, as well as state attorney general Gansler, am totally against this change in the classification of FMB’s to “beer” (again read the previous post). Unfortunately, our representatives voted in favor of the wholesalers/distributors to classify these “alcopops” as “beer” (take a look at tax records to see how much money lobbyists contributed to our representatives campaigns in the last few years…it’s sickening).

But, wait, good news!: The Baltimore Sun (and our friends at Vinotrip) reported that on Wednesday, Governor Martin O’Malley came through, delaying the signing of the bill as he considers the repercussions of such legislation. Now might be a good time to contact your local legislature or send a letter to the Governor to let him know that we citizens of Maryland won’t stand for FMB’s being classified as beer.