Rep. Joe Hubbard, D-Montgomery.The lawyer for a national winery organization said concerns over allowing wineries in Alabama to distribute their own products are baseless because other states have done what a bill in the Alabama senate is seeking to do without ramifications.
Cary Greene, chief operating officer and general counsel for Washington, D.C.-based WineAmerica, the National Association of American Wineries, said Rep. Joe Hubbard, D-Montgomery, gave reasons for opposing the legislation that do not hold water.
Greene said there is no constitutional requirement for a three-tier system and allowing wineries to distribute their own product is not in violation of the constitution. In fact, Greene said more than 30 states -- most of them with a three-tier system -- already allow small winery distribution.
"I'm not exactly sure what constitutional concern he's raising here, but there is no constitutional concern in allowing a winery to distribute its own wine," he said. "That's just a free market principle. A business should be able to sell its products to people who are interested in buying it."
Alabama, like many states, still has a three-tier system when it comes to the sale of alcohol. Instituted after prohibition, the law prevents the same entity from producing, distributing and selling its wine, beer or liquor.
Hubbard said the House economic development and tourism committee didn't pass the winery bill because of constitutionality concerns over allowing an exception to the three-tier system, not because of lobbying efforts from the Alabama Wholesale Beer Association and others opposed to the bill.
The decision by the House committee prompted the Alabama Wineries Association to call for a boycott of the beers distributed by opponents to the bill. In addition to Budweiser, Miller and Coors, the boycott includes Pabst, Heineken, Amstel and other beers.
Hubbard said there was also a concern about out-of-state wineries and others challenging the winery law as being unfair.
But Greene said plaintiffs have not lined up to sue over such laws in other states.
"I understand the concern about lawsuits. I wouldn't want to see any state be subject to lawsuits unnecessarily or pass legislation that would make it subject to lawsuits," Greene said. "But it just hasn't happened that way. There are lots of states that allow wineries to operate tasting rooms. There are lots of states that allow wineries to have events off site. There are lots of states that allow wineries to self-distribute their wines."
In cases where a state's winery laws have been challenged, it has usually been by happenstance, Greene said.
"There are no lawsuits directly against any of these laws virtually anywhere," he said. "These kinds of lawsuits have come up from time to time, once every decade, but it's usually by accident where they were going after something else and the winery law happened to get stuck into the lawsuit that had nothing to do with the winery law itself."
Greene said allowing Alabama wineries to self-distribute wouldn't open the door for beer and spirits. Wine is different in that it is primarily an agricultural product based on what the winery can grow. Beer and other forms of alcohol are more of a manufacturing process, with their makers buying ingredients to create their products, Greene said.
The assertion that large, out-of-state wineries would want the same privilege of small wineries to self-distribute has not been played out in other states, Greene said.
"Even in states that allow self-distribution for large producers, they almost all go through the three-tier system because it's efficient," he said.
Small wineries usually lack the volume or can't afford to use large distributorships, which is why Alabama's 14 farm wineries are seeking to get the power to sell directly to stores. Greene said the national association supports their efforts.
"We just want to be able to see the wineries have the privilege to get their products to those who want to buy it," he said.
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