DT-Pro Wine Marketing

There is a revolution in direct wine shipping happening south of the border. The changes are occurring as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Granholm v. Heald. This case dealt with state restrictions which prohibited out-of-state wineries from shipping to customers within a state in situations where the state’s own laws allowed in-state wineries to make such shipments.  The court effectively made it illegal for any U.S. state to discriminate in such a manner. As a result of this ruling, many states are now being forced to open their borders to out-of-state wine shipments. This is effectively creating a free market in wine for consumers and greatly expanding customer choice.

While many aspects of liquor regulation in Canada and the U.S. differ, one common theme was that the states and provinces had been given the power to regulate internally on liquor matters, thus creating a patchwork system of regulation in each country with differing laws in each state/province. The decision in Granhom has effectively changed this since there is now a national standard (or close to it anyway) in the U.S. with regards to direct shipment. An example of the effects is shown in this article on Pennsylvania’s liquor laws regarding wine shipments (Pennsylvania has a government control system just like the systems in most provinces).

Canada’s liquor laws discriminate in exactly the same way as the U.S. laws and are perhaps susceptible to challenge either on constitutional grounds or under NAFTA. I am currently looking into this issue and plan to post some thoughts on it soon on both this site and on my other site, winelaw.ca (which has other articles on it covering the current laws on shipping within Canada).

In the interim, if you would like advice on direct shipping compliance, please do not hesitate to contact me.