Wine Law Reform Proposals Presented to Legislature

Family Wineries of Washington State continues its campaign to comprehensively modernize Washington State’s antiquated wine laws this fall with the presentation of two proposals to the Washington State Legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Beer and Wine Regulation. The proposed measures would end prohibition-era economic regulations that hinder the long-term growth of the Washington State wine industry and increase the cost of wine for consumers.

The first proposal, the Washington Wine Law Modernization Act, promotes economic growth as a state interest, while protecting public safety.  It removes unnecessary economic provisions of the liquor laws that may benefit a few special interests but harm the industry as a whole and punish consumers.  The measure would apply to both beer and wine.

The second proposal applies only to small wineries. Entitled the Craft Winery Development Act, it exempts small wineries from the economic provisions of Washington State liquor law, while continuing to apply all of the public safety requirements. While FWWS prefers applying the reforms to the entire wine industry, volunteer FWWS attorneys developed this proposal as a compromise to conciliate larger producers and beer distributors.

Under current state liquor laws, Washington wine and beer producers and retailers are forced to seek special legal exceptions from the legislature on a case-by-case basis.  The Joint Select Committee was formed by the Washington State legislature to determine whether the laws relating to the manufacture, distribution and sale of beer and wine should be reformulated to decrease the number of bills introduced in the state legislature each year.

“The legislature has the opportunity to make Washington’s wine laws a model for the entire nation.  At no cost to the taxpayer, we can help Washington’s young wine industry and focus the Liquor Board on the public safety issues that are the real concern,” said FWWS Board Member John Morgan. “We urge the Joint Select Committee to recommend one of our proposals to the entire Legislature and the Governor.”