Vintners oppose shipping ban repeal

LINCOLNVILLE – A local woman who makes wine has changed her mind.

Stephanie Clapp, who owns and operates Cellardoor Winery with her husband, John Clapp, has decided she would rather see the state’s prohibition of direct-to-consumer wine shipments stay in place than have it changed by proposed legislation or by a lawsuit pending in federal court.

Clapp’s change of heart reflects the nuances of a complicated issue that has brought together interest groups that by their own admission don’t always see eye to eye. Small in-state wine producers and alcohol distributors agree that two bills pending in the Legislature would be bad, but members of each group cite different reasons in explaining their opposition.

According to Clapp, a bill she formerly supported – LD 1900 – would create enough additional bureaucracy and extra costs for Maine producers that they could be put out of business if larger wineries from out of state were allowed to ship directly to Maine consumers.

She said earlier this week that judging by fees and taxes that have been imposed in other states where shipping prohibitions have been overturned, a small farm winery in Maine would make only $6 shipping a bottle that costs $10 in its showroom.

“I think this lawsuit is a very serious economic threat to Maine,” Clapp said. “I really want shipping, but this isn’t how I want to do it.”

She was critical of the Wine Institute, a California-based lobbying group that has been pushing to have state laws banning such wine shipments repealed.

“I was duped by the consortium of California wineries that provided the information that I went by,” she said, referring to her earlier support of LD 1900.

Carol Martel, the institute’s representative in the Northeast, said Thursday that she could she why some small wineries in Maine would be leery of the added bureaucracy proposed in the two bills. The real benefit of LD 1900, the bill supported by the institute, would be for consumers, she said. She said she believed the other bill, LD 560, would create too many regulatory hoops for consumers to jump through to be effective.

Martel said it is a fact that, though it may not be legal, some wine drinkers circumvent state restrictions by having wine shipped to friends or relatives in nearby states – such as New Hampshire – that allow direct shipments. To adhere to current Maine law, she said, consumers have to appear in person at a winery every time they buy its wine.

“That is absolutely absurd,” Martel said of the face-to-face sales requirement.

Cheryl Timberlake, executive vice president of Maine Beer and Wine Wholesalers Association, said Thursday that there are many factors that figure into the debate. If the law is to be changed, regulators first need to determine how to apply Maine’s comprehensive bottle-deposit bill to wine being shipped across state lines; how to collect taxes on such sales; and how to prevent wine from being shipped to minors.

“Everybody has an economic interest in this,” Timberlake acknowledged. “We’re not sure that allowing Internet sales is the policy of choice.”

Bob Bartlett, co-owner and operator of Bartlett Maine Estate Winery in Gouldsboro, said Wednesday that he thinks wholesalers have too much control in Maine over how wine can be sold. Because of the influence in Augusta of the wholesalers, he said, he is concerned that any resulting change in the law to allow such shipments will be too complicated to be worthwhile.

Bartlett said that he and many other small Maine wineries like the idea of shipping directly to their customers.

“I’d rather see a simple shipping law and wholesalers have less control,” he said. “That’s why I think we ought to leave [the current law] alone.”

As for Clapp, she said she believes there is too much opposition in Maine from state officials, distributors and small wineries for either of the two bills to be approved by the Legislature. She thinks the more urgent threat to her livelihood is the pending lawsuit, in which a Bangor doctor and an Oregon vineyard are seeking to bar state officials from enforcing the shipping ban.

According to the plaintiffs, the state law violates constitutional protections on interstate commerce because Maine consumers are more likely to travel to an in-state winery to buy wine than they are to visit one outside Maine.

“We’re just waiting to see what happens at this point,” Clapp said.