Empire Wine Still Fighting Prohibition

© New York S.L.A.; Fotolia | The New York State Liquor Authority enforces the law that restricts out-of-state shipping to certain states

Next month will mark 81 years since the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution repealed Prohibition. But remnants of that 13-year experiment banning the legal manufacture, transport and distribution of beer, wine and spirits remain and are causing problems for some and euphoria for others.

Repeal gave power to the individual states to regulate liquor and the head of the New York State Liquor Authority (S.L.A.) appears to believe his authority extends beyond New York as far as the Pacific, said the lawyer who is suing the regulator on behalf of Empire Wine.

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"The attorney general of California isn't enforcing the law that prevents its citizens from receiving direct shipments of wine from out-of-state retailers, why should the S.L.A.?" said attorney William Nolan, who is representing the wine shop and its owner Bradley Junco in their lawsuit against the regulator.

Empire and Junco came to the attention of the S.L.A. during an investigation of a New York importer and distributor who sold more than 100 cases of wine to a "select retailer" at a discount of nearly 50 percent, without offering other shops the same deal.

"The S.L.A. charged Empire Wine for making over 11,000 sales in 16 states where direct sales to consumers from out-of-state retailers are prohibited … Additionally, by making massive illegal sales, Empire is able to obtain large quantity discounts, leaving other local retailers at a competitive disadvantage," a spokesman for the regulator said in an email.

The regulator has set a December 3 date for an administrative hearing. Empire is seeking, among other things, to have that hearing stopped until a judge can decide exactly where the S.L.A's authority ends.

Among the 16 states cited by the S.L.A. is Arkansas, whose voters last week rejected a ballot measure that would have permitted the statewide sale of alcohol. So the county-by-county rule stands and the state is split between "wet" counties and "dry" ones.

"Actually, if you're in a wet county, it's a pretty great time to be a brewery in Arkansas right now," Lacie Bray, owner of the Ozark Brewing Company in the town of Rogers, Arkansas, said in an interview with National Public Radio. "The beer culture in Arkansas is a little bit behind other places in the U.S., so absolutely people are excited to have craft beer here."

Meanwhile in the neighboring state of Tennessee, voters in 78 cities and towns overwhelmingly backed measures that would permit grocery stores to sell wines. The measure, in the state that is home to Jack Daniel's whiskey, will go into effect in July 2016.

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