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+--- Thread: State laws for shipping wine (/thread-2990.html)
- jtdante - 11-22-1999
I live in CA and am trying to buy and send some Napa Valley wine as Christmas gifts to family in Massachusetts. Apparently I cannot because of some laws regarding transportation of alcohol between states. Can anybody help me?
- anna - 11-23-1999
You're probably SOL as far as shipping wine from CA to MA -- MA expressly prohibits wine shipments via common carrier into its state borders. This is an excerpt from www.wineinstitute.org regarding MA's laws:
Despite provisions that specify that an individual may obtain special permit from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, 100 Cambridge St., Boston 02202 to import alcoholic beverages acquired other than by purchase (gifts). (¶7101)(M.G.L §2A), no such permits are being issued.
What some people do is have the wine shipped to a friend in a nearby state that allows direct shipments, then go pick the wine up and bring it back home in their car. Yes, it's a pain in the butt, but so are state governments.
- Jerry D Mead - 11-23-1999
The truth of the matter is that most wineries and wine shops will not ship to Mass and other wine unfriendly states...but some retailers will if you check around and especially if you are a regular customer and they know you aren't a government agent doing a sting.
And while it is not legal, if you pack and send the wine yourself there's almost no chance of interference or prosecution. The states aren't after individual gift-givers...they're trying to stop e-commerce and mail order business as part of home state protectionism for their own wholesale monopoly.
Just make sure your package is in an approved shipper (broken bottles in transit are a real giveaway) or very well padded and lie or bend the truth when the shipper asks what's inside. I usually say fruit preserves (not totally untrue) or olive oil. If you tell UPS or whatever common carrier that there's wine inside...they won't take it for you either.
And ask your friend in MA to raise hell with his politicians about the ban.