Would You Like Some Food With That Wine?

The new budget passed by New York State's  elected representatives (and I use that term loosely) during one of their per diem trips to Albany did not include allowing grocery stores to sell wine. 

I think this is nuts, frankly, particularly in light of the fact that there are literally hundreds of wineries in New York, some big and many not so big, who could have benefited from the opportunity of having their products sold in thousands of outlets – again, some big and many not so big – who also could have had the opportunity to improve their bottom line as a result. 

There are competing opinions on this, of course. Wegmans, an award-winning regional grocery chain, came out strongly in favor and encouraged their patrons to do the same. Mom and Pop liquor stores came out against, and encouraged their customers to do the same. Politicians took the road most travelled and tabled the whole idea, instead of working to craft legislation that could have benefited both our growing wine industry and the liquor stores, and raised tens of millions for our cash-strapped state. 

I’m not sure we need to be Iowa, where you can buy wines in flower shops, but I think we can do more. I don’t believe we should have given carte blanche and just opened the floodgates and let the wine pour into the grocery stores. And I don't think we need every corner market selling wine -- there has to be a threshold, I think, of what’s considered a grocery store. If three quarters of sales are beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, and snack foods, I don’t think that should count. Maybe the threshold could be the number of grocery carts – more than 10 you’re a grocery store, less than that you’re not? I don’t know; I think it’s kind of like the Supreme Court and obscenity – you know it when you see it. This holds true for grocery stores, too.

There should have been something in the law that guaranteed a high percentage of the shelf space in the grocery stores - say, 75% - would be devoted to wines produced in New York. This would have given a boost to the NY wine industry, much of which is at the ‘mom and pop’ level, just like the liquor stores. Ideally there would be an educated person who could help a consumer choose wines, and information available throughout the store (in appropriate areas, of course) suggesting food and wine combinations – again with a focus on pairing local foods with local wines. 

 And in fairness, it’s really pretty stupid that a liquor store in New York is not allowed to sell cork screws, glasses, wine glass charms, or a whole host of other accessories that grocery stores now can sell. This too could have been (and still should be) corrected if legislators had done the right thing, rather than running and hiding from an issue that could really be beneficial to wineries, grocery stores, liquor stores, and our state’s financial situation. 

 I’m not impressed with a local group of liquor stores, who protested loud and long that selling more wine would lead to increased alcoholism, DWI problems, mental health issues, and the need for more police to handle all of the above, at great cost to our budget. I complained about these guys in a letter to the editor of our local paper a while back, and I complain to My Sweet Baboo every time I see their full-page ad in the local paper pushing low-priced wine on the unsuspecting public. I don’t begrudge their right to make a living, but I have to laugh at how they contradict their own grave concerns about increased consumption through their attempts to cause exactly that. 

More importantly, in a recent ad, they dangerously advertised “more choices, lower prices” on twenty four wines: eight from California, five each from Italy and Australia/New Zealand, one each from Argentina, Chile, Germany, and Spain. And the other two? Oh, those were the New York wines. I’m pretty sure they can do better than that to support business in New York, particularly when the anti-'wine in grocery stores' trade group is in the middle of a ‘support NY wines’ campaign. 

Somehow, we’ve got to find a way to work together, to do better, to craft legislation so everyone can benefit.