(TNS) — The National Association of Wine Retailers (NAWR) earlier this week announced its support for the National Direct Shipping Bill of Rights, an initiative of the Craft Wine Association to modernize the legislative architecture around the interstate shipment of wine.
NAWR will urge all members of the alcohol beverage community to embrace the principles outlined in the new National Direct Shipping Bill of Rights, a news release said.
Tom Wark, executive director of NAWR, told PennLive on Tuesday that the push to adopt this Bill of Rights is relatively new.
“The idea is to take what has been learned in the past two decades of direct shipments and use the lessons to update the principles of wine shipping and the laws and regulations that surround the practice,” he wrote in an email. His organization recently met and approved the “Bill of Rights,” he said, “because the principles embodied in the Bill of Rights that focus on safety and free markets and reform of the regulatory system comport with NAWR values.”
His press release sent out Monday noted that the National Direct Shipping Bill of Rights is “a badly needed update” to the Model Direct Shipping Bill language adopted in 1997 by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL). The aim of the retailers and the Craft Wine Association is to once again get that group’s endorsement along with strong support from the industry at large before approaching individual states to incorporate parts or all of this updated list into their shipping laws.
“While the Model Direct Shipping Bill was, at the time, crucial to helping move forward the direct shipping movement, much has changed over the past 27 years in the DtC (direct-to-consumer) channel and a new framework for advancing and regulating direct shipments of alcohol, the release said.
You can find the “Bill of Rights” at this link along with the individual wineries, businesses and associations that have endorsed them to this point.
Beneath that list is some additional background, which in part notes that the “Bill of Rights will allow for an orderly market, will meet the 21st Amendment rights of a State to maintain the health and safety of the American people, and will provide consumers the greatest choice.”
While the 1997 shipping bill exclusively covered wine, this one expands these rights to all alcohol products covered by the TTB or FTC.
“These are principles that its supporters hope to see used in legislation that impacts shipments of wine and spirits to consumers so the first place you’ll see these principles applied are in new shipping-related legislation,” Wark told PennLive. “NAWR, for example, has launched an effort to bring wine shipments from out-of-state retailers to Washington State consumers. The bill we wrote applied these principles.”
Wark said in his news release that “the Craft Wine Association has initiated an important modernization process with its development and dissemination of the Direct Shipping Bill of Rights. Nearly three decades of DtC shipping experience, the reliance on consumer shipments by producers, retailers, and consumers, as well as two Supreme Court decisions since the adoption of the Model Direct Shipping Bill in 1997 has taught the alcohol industry, alcohol regulators, and lawmakers that very specific regulatory and legal principles surrounding DtC shipments have made this distribution channel extraordinarily safe.”
NAWR is a national trade association representing reform-minded, modern wine and spirit retailers. In representing its members’ interests, NAWR seeks to modernize state laws governing the sale of alcohol via legislation, litigation, and education.
The Craft Wine Association is a non-profit, created in 2016 to advocate for the interest of craft wineries around the country. As its website notes, there are more than 11,000 wineries in America. Around 81% of those produce fewer than than 5,000 cases annually and another 16% produce between 5,000 and 49,000 cases annually. Per the website, “That constitutes 97% of the wineries in the industry. We advocate for those 97%.”
