Discover how friendly your state is for wine consumers. The American Wine Consumer Coalition located in Washington, DC has issued a report about the state of the wine industry in terms of how friendly it is for consumers to purchase wine. The states and the District of Columbia are graded from A+ to F.

The study addressed six consumer wine issues:

• Winery Shipping
• No State Monopoly on Wine Sales
• Retailer Shipping
• Sunday Wine Sales
• Bringing Wine Into Restaurants
• Wine Sales in Grocery Stores

The  wine friendly states with the top scores include: California, District of Columbia, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oregon, Virginia, Louisiana, and Nevada.

Those states receiving an F include: Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, South Dakota, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Utah.

Wondering how your state scored? The report can be viewed at
http://www.wineconsumers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ConsumingConcerns4small1.pdf.

If your state did not get a high rating, discover where it needs to improve. Write letters and make phone calls and eventually your voice will be heard.

Another website to visit is Free the Grapes. According to their mission statement, Free the Grapes! is a national grassroots coalition of wine lovers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers.”

Cheers!

Kathy