FREE THE GRAPES!

[sangwitch]

www.freethegrapes.org *
Help us Free the Grapes!
A wine war is pitting consumers - who want the option to purchase wines directly from wineries and retailers - against the wine wholesaler cartel, who are threatening consumers and winemakers with jail time if they bypass the middlemen.


Free the Grapes! is a national, grassroots coalition of consumers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that still prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers.


(* credit to Northern Winos for posting this link. I just thought it should have its own thread. Let's all get involved!)

 

[Wade E]

Oh, I thought it read FREE GRAPES!

 

[jobe05]

So did I Wade....... Got all excited....

 

[Waldo]

I have been a member for a while now sang......looks like we are fighting a losing battle here in Arkansas though

 

[sangwitch]

Sorry about that misunderstanding : )


Yea, that really stinks. We'll have to get together and march on the capital!

 

[Francie]

AMEN BROTHER!!!

 

[Waldo]

It's the same politics and mentatality that prevents us from being able to participate in the wine competition at the State Fair too Sang

 

[Angell Wine]

Politicians don't believe that there's good honest people anymore because they don't see it in themselves

 

[Coaster]

Politicians don't believe that there's good honest people anymore because they don't see it in themselves

Reminds me of a pretty good book imocalled "Term Limits" by Vince Flynn. I like his work (spy novels).

 

[NorthernWinos]

Waldo...you are no longer fading out into a wine glass...is that just for mornings????

 

[smurfe]

It's all about taxes. They know the true wine lover will pay the increased cost that taxes add. Look at cigarettes for example. The prices have skyrocketed over the past few years but they still light up. Profits are still there so what you gonna do? Not buy the product. Who sufferers? Not us, the home wine maker.


We are truly the ones that will benefit. These laws are geared at the commercial wineries, not us.Sure, we may not be able to ship our wines to Aunt Gertie but that isn't the true concept of us making our own wines.


As home winemaking grows, it can have a positive or negative impact on the home winemaker. Increased sales of kits and supplies can lead to more producers and increase competition thus lowering prices across the board. Or, it could drive up the prices based on the average per bottle price to make a bottle of wine as manufacturers see the increase in sales and the potential of the future market. We can make for example a bottle of Cabernet for less than we can buy an equivalent commercial brand.


The manufactures will work toward this as they to, like the government know that the consumer will still pay the little bit extra for this hobby. Would you totally quit making wine kits (for those that make kit wines) if the price was raised $5.00? How about $10.00? I wouldn't, and the average manufacturer knows this. No big deal to me. They need to make a profit and pay their employees well as well as their stakeholders. Think back again at the tobacco industry for example.


I, like Waldo have signed their petitions. I have wrote my legislators as Louisiana has been changing their laws in the wine industry. Of course, the laws enacted here are directed at the commercial wineries and will probably put a few of the few we have out of business. It won't affect me as a home winemaker though. I do support the industry and will do what I can to help out. I do applaud those that support a grass roots effort to help the overall wine industry nation wide.


Smurfe