AnuvaBlog

Oh my, what a nightmare.

Let’s begin with an overview. The wine business in the U.S. is extremely over-regulated and therefore complicated. You have sets of overlapping and interlocking laws on both the state and federal levels that govern the alcohol trade.

Specifically, when it comes to direct to consumer shipping one must be aware of three tier laws, primary source laws and label registrations. These all basically are left over from the post-prohibition era, when the government and the people were afraid of mafia or centralized control over this business. Thus, they set up what are now these obsolete laws in order to divide power and provide checks and balances. This created what is in essence, the 3-tier system of producer/importer then wholesaler/distributor then retailer. Each level in each state requires a different license. Each state may or may not have a “reciprocal” agreement with other states to honor certain licenses such as a direct shipping license.

Take this ludicrous example: our import department imports gorgeous, unique, micro-production Anuva Vino to California. We have a client in Texas who would like to become a member. Currently, the law says that with our direct shipping license in CA, we are allowed to ship to this person. However, there is a major catch: the wine has to be bought from a TX distributor. Does that make any sense? I import the wine, then sell it to a distributor, then I have to buy it back from him so that I can ship it?

So that’s a brief of how this biz works. I look forward to comments should anyone like to hear more about how it works on the US side or Argentine side.