Coalition Calls out Hypocrisy of Liquor Lobby

ALBANY, NY (03/18/2009)(readMedia)-- New York wine makers feel that promoting Empire State wines is long overdue and today mocked the liquor lobby for a transparent and disingenuous public relations trick: its news release "designating" April as "New York Wine Month."

The winery owners said they did not think the public or state legislators would be fooled into thinking that the liquor lobby actually might support New York wineries. In fact, the New York State Wine and Grape Foundation has celebrated New York wines in April for years but decided not to hold this event this year at the request of the wine and liquor distributors.

"This is like the foxes announcing Hen Appreciation Month," said Doug Miles, owner of Miles Wine Cellars on Seneca Lake. "It's hard to take seriously the notion of a wine appreciation month from the same people who have threatened to blacklist winemakers who didn't publicly oppose wine sales in grocery stores."

Scott Osborn, owner of the award-winning Fox Run Vineyards, said: "Does this mean liquor stores who threatened to dump my wines in the street for supporting the Governor will now start celebrating my product? Or is this just for the wineries that play ball with the liquor lobby?"

Osborn and many New York wineries were recently the subject of a campaign of intimidation at the hands of liquor stores. This intimidation led the wineries to file a complaint with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, whose office has said it is reviewing the matter.

At issue is legislation that would have New York join 35 other states in allowing sales of wine in grocery stores. Under the state's current Prohibition-era laws, wine sales are allowed only in liquor stores - giving them an unfettered monopoly.

Allowing wine sales in grocery stores would generate $160 million in revenue to help close New York State's massive budget deficit - without raising a single tax - and would create 2,000 new jobs, save consumers $80 million and strengthen the state's wine and tourism industries. The proposal comes when legislators are considering devastating cuts to public schools and universities, to health care and to needed social services.

The liquor lobby's publicity stunt - "designating" April as "New York Wine Month" - came on the same day the Syracuse Post-Standard published an essay by W. Lamar Wells, a winemaker from Jamesville, NY, in which he detailed how most liquor stores snub New York wineries. The stunt also came a whole week after posting of a YouTube video demonstrating how difficult it is to buy a New York State wine in a New York liquor store. See: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/12447/new-zealand-wines-yes-new-york-not-so-much-wine-not.

Wells wrote: "You see, in New York state, it is very difficult to get onto the shelves of liquor stores. And despite the rhetoric from these stores about `supporting local wineries,' most people don't know that only 5 percent of the wine in New York state liquor stores comes from New York." www.syracuse.com/opinion/index.ssf?/base/opinion-5/1237366867146060.xml&coll=1

"The voices of thoughtful, honorable store owners aren't being heard over the threats and recrimination being doled out by the liquor lobby in `Albany," Wells wrote. "We are mom-and-pop businesses as well, and it's difficult to understand why our history of being threatened and ignored by distributors and liquor stores hasn't been part of the discussion."

John Martini, owner of Anthony Road Wine Company in Penn Yan, Yates County, said: "New York's liquor lobby is a day late and a dollar short on this transparent public relations ploy. The New York State Wine and Grape Foundation has celebrated New York wines in April for years. The Foundation decided not to hold this event this year at the request of the wine and liquor distributors. Now they want to create the illusion that they support New York State wines. And New York State winemakers whom they haven't intimidated will tell you - it's an illusion."

Major editorial pages support allowing wine sales in grocery stores, including: the Buffalo News; the Syracuse Post-Standard; Newsday; the New York Post; the Schenectady Gazette; the Watertown Daily Times; the Rochester Business Journal; and Crain's New York Business. Columnists who have supported the proposal include: Bill Hammond of the Daily News; Fred LeBrun of the Albany Times Union; and Mitch Frank of Wine Spectator.

New York is the only major wine-producing state that prohibits the sale of wine in grocery stores. That helps explain New York's diminished leadership in the wine industry in recent years - behind California and Washington and falling.

Thirty-five other states have allowed wine sales in grocery stores - with no signs that liquor stores have suffered as a result. In fact, evidence shows that allowing wine sales in grocery stores would benefit liquor stores. One study showed that states that now permit wine sales in food stores also support a greater number of liquor stores per capita than states that limit wine sales to package stores.