Limbo: NJ wineries' licenses expire; state says keep selling

After the New Jersey Assembly fails to act on wine sales legislation, vineyard owners worry the issue could remain unresolved until November.

Every New Jersey winery's retail sales license expired at midnight.

Technically, that means they are not licensed to sell directly to customers.

But the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control said they are allowing wineries to continue selling under their expired license, pending court or legislative action, according to Rachel Goemaat.

Wineries had hoped the state Assembly would take up legislation on Thursday that would have put a new regulatory scheme in place. The state Senate had approved a bill on Wednesday, but the Assembly tabled the legislation before adjourning.

Legislative action was required after the state's direct wine sales regulations were overturned by a federal appeals court.

The court invalidated New Jersey's direct wine sales law because it unfairly prohibited out-of-state wineries from selling directly to consumers in New Jersey.

With the Assembly's failure to act, the state technically has no valid direct wine sale law in place, except for allowing New Jersey wines to be sold to a wholesale distributor supplying liquor stores.

Franklin Salek, a pioneering wine grower on Vienna Avenue in Galloway Township, said Friday morning he wasn't sure if he legally could sell wine because he had not been informed by the state.

"It's a real disaster in terms of not being resolved," said Salek, the owner and winemaker at Sylvin Farms Winery.

Salek believes that the legal limbo will continue until November when he thinks the Assembly may once again consider enacting a new law.

But it is also possible the courts may intervene more swiftly, imposing a new regulatory scheme on the state's wineries in the absence of action by the Assembly.

Until there is action, wineries that had applied for sales licenses, but had not yet gotten them before the court ruling, remain on hold.

Renault Winery, with vineyards in Galloway, has three pending off-site retail applications filed with the state, but no action will be taken on those applications without a new regulatory scheme in place, Renault general manager Paul A. Verde Jr. said Friday.

He also said the wine industry now will be subjected to regulation by a court ruling, rather than through legislation, making the business climate uncertain.