The Right States for Shipping Wine
With the holiday season upon us, now is the time when a lot of people are looking to ship presents to friends and loved ones in other states. Of course, we think the best gift you could give anyone is wine, so that got us to thinking - what states can you ship wine to? As you probably know, individual states have their own rules and regulations about who can ship wine to their residents, and there are different categories.
Shipping between some states is perfectly simple and legal, while shipping to others is a felony. That's right...we said felony. We've compiled a list of each state's status after the jump, just to make sure you don't celebrate the holidays with a trip to the Big House.
[Update: So we thought this would be a useful little story for people looking to have wine shipped to another state, but it looks like the whole thing is too complex for our tender little minds. First we put up a list of laws and states, but it looks like the resource we used for this story was a bit out of date - or a lot out of date based on the number of comments we got. The other thing we noticed is that it's a fairly emotional issue, based on the number of people who called us idiots.
This just goes to show how confusing it can all be. So, in honor of us being idiots, we give up. If we include shipping info in our story, it seems like it'll just change in a week anyway. So, instead of giving you the list, we're going to tell you where to look for wine shipping info.
First, check out the Wine Institute's Who Ships Where? page for more up-to-date info. If that's not up to date enough for you, give the Ship Compliant blog a try...they know way more about this stuff than we do. Of course, most of the info is aimed at wineries that do wine shipping, so they probably know all this stuff anyway. Also, if you're trying to order from somewhere like Wine.com, check their shipping policies before you get out your credit card.
Oh, and if you're living in one of those banned states for wine shipping and you just can't take it anymore, Free the Grapes is a grassroots coalition to try to lift bans and regulations on wine shipping.
Sorry about all the confusion. We hope this has been as much of a learning experience for you as it has for us.]
Reciprocal Wine Shipping:
Some states have reciprocal shipping status, which means you can ship between these states with little or no fear of repercussion.
These states are: California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Restricted Wine Shipping:
Shipping to and from some states is not completely illegal, but there are some caveats and catches. Make sure to read up on the laws before you pack a box or order wine to be delivered there.
These states are: Alabama, Alaska, Connecticut, Dist. Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wyoming.
Illegal Wine Shipping:
Certain states are pretty vehement that you don't ship wine to or from their borders. You'll probably just want to send your loved ones here a nice corkscrew or something.
These states are: Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Felony Wine Shipping:
Don't even try it, buddy.
These states are: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
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Posted by Head Wino at December 7, 2006 7:29 AM
hey HW - I too seldom read the news while consuming cheap wine to excess, but as Lynne very politely put it, you have to get out of the 20th century! For example, in one swell foop of the Supreme Court's pen, Florida went from being the most oppresive to be about the easiest ever!
Here is a link on the Wine Institute site that consumers will find useful:
http://wi.shipcompliant.com/WhoShipsWhere.aspx
This is a list of the states and whether UPS and FedEx will ship into that state. Use this as a good starting point.
But remember that the rules wineries must follow may not be the same as for consumers. In most cases (pun not intended) you can buy your local hooch and ship it off as a gift - use the "onsite" column as your guide. Even if the state says "felony" it may still be OK for a consumer to do. When in doubt ask your shipping company.
Also, the cautions about taxes mostly don't apply here. If you are buying wine and shipping it to another state, the transaction is local and no taxes apply.
If on the other hand you are in Florida and are buying wine from California to give to that nice man across the hall, then yes you are supposed to deal with the Florida sales tax. For the other states that require sales tax collection the winery will handle it for you.
Now, if you live in Colorado, order wine from California, and have it shipped to your Aunt Edna in Florida... I think on this one I just cross my fingers...
cheers! - j
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