A Partial Victory for Tennessee Wine Lovers

This May, 2009, the Tennessee legislature passed two wine bills. The first bill was a new Grape and Wine Law Bill that essentially created out-of-state winery permits that can be licensed from Tennessee to allow wineries to sell to Tennessee residents, collect the appropriate taxes and then Tennessee purchasers can legally transport the wine to their home in Tennessee (this used to be a Class E felony).

Revised Tennessee Grape and Wine Law Bill

The Grape and Wine Law Bill, however, did not allow shipping by common carrier from wineries either in-state or out-of-state. Thus a second bill, a Wine Shipping Bill, was passed because previous Sixth Circuit Court Appellate rulings have indicated it is an unreasonable restraint of interstate commerce to require a person to drive several thousand miles, eg., to California, just to be able to purchase out-of-state wine. The Wine Shipping bill allows out-of-state wineries to apply for a permit ($300) and to obtain an annual license ($150) which requires them to collect and remit the appropriate excise and sales taxes to Tennessee and allows them to ship up to 3 cases of wine a year (but no more than 1 case a month) to Tennessee residents in "wet" municipalities using a common carrier who labels the box clearly as containing alcohol and requires an adult signature.

Tennessee Wine Shipping Permit Bill

The shipping bill as it was introduced originally included wine retailers being allowed to get a shipper's license but this was amended out in the final version apparently due to compromise with the alcohol wholesalers' and retailers' lobbying agents.

Both bills take effect July 1, 2009. Let your favorite winery know about this so they can get a permit for Tennessee residents!