Your Winery

Protect Your Right to Receive Wine at Home ... Free the Grapes!

May 04, 2010

We usually refrain from any political activism, but as this matter pertains to your rights to receive the wines you love directly from an out-of-state winery, we thought you should be aware of this issue so you can fight for your rights before they are taken away from you.

In an effort to turn back the clock on the direct shipment of wine to consumers, a bill has been introduced in Congress recently that would, in effect, overturn the 2005 “Granholm v. Heald” U.S. Supreme Court decision that helped pave the way for wineries to ship wine directly to consumers around the country.

H.R. 5034, crafted by the National Beer Wholesalers Association, would make it practically impossible to bring legal action against states’ wine shipping laws that violate the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause by prohibiting wine shipment from out of state, while permitting their own in-state wineries to ship direct.  The end result would be a return to discriminatory wine shipping laws within the states, creating economic hardship for wineries such as ours that consider direct shipment an important sales channel and greatly restricting choice among wine consumers nationwide. Essentially, you would only be able to purchase wine directly from wineries in your state. If you live in California, you would still be able to buy from us directly; however, consumers in all other states would risk losing their right to purchase wines directly from the wineries they love.

We are asking all of our customers to help us fight this bill by writing to your local Congressman. It is important that Members of Congress from all across the country hear from consumers as to why H.R. 5034 is bad for them. Please visit Free the Grapes to personalize a letter to your local Congressman. 

Here in California, we are doing all that we can to stop this legislation from passing but we need your voice in the rest of the country to help combat this bill. On behalf of us here at DeLoach Vineyards, we thank you for taking the time to ensure that wineries such as ours can continue to exist and share our wines with you.

Thank you for your time and attention on this urgent matter.

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