As a wine importer who has been thru a Virginia court appearance to remove a bankrupt wholesaler from holding our brands hostage, I am not sure how you wrote this article so eloquently. Guessing it took you many edits. Both the VA and PA ABC boards, among others, need to be dissolved and turned over to be run legally, commercially and for profit by private businesses and only regulated by the state boards. As is done perfectly successfully is the majority of states. The old ways of dark government back room dealings running the country needs to end.
100% agree with you. These agencies no zero about the industry and so consequently they have no idea how to interpret rules other than to protect what they do already - there is zero innovation coming from them. As government employees they have no incentive to help an industry and staying with what they know is simple for them because being creative create new work. I shake my head daily when I see the issues that they create that are very unnecessary bit they do not like anyone that disagrees with them. Sad we are here in 2025 having to go through these things. Some states VA, TN, MI, PA, and much worse than others.
Yep, the regulatory structure has got completely out of sync with the world we live in, but no one questions it and so those running it assume they are acting appropriately when in fact they are doing so much damage to our industry.
As a wine importer who has been thru a Virginia court appearance to remove a bankrupt wholesaler from holding our brands hostage, I am not sure how you wrote this article so eloquently. Guessing it took you many edits. Both the VA and PA ABC boards, among others, need to be dissolved and turned over to be run legally, commercially and for profit by private businesses and only regulated by the state boards. As is done perfectly successfully is the majority of states. The old ways of dark government back room dealings running the country needs to end.
100% agree with you. These agencies no zero about the industry and so consequently they have no idea how to interpret rules other than to protect what they do already - there is zero innovation coming from them. As government employees they have no incentive to help an industry and staying with what they know is simple for them because being creative create new work. I shake my head daily when I see the issues that they create that are very unnecessary bit they do not like anyone that disagrees with them. Sad we are here in 2025 having to go through these things. Some states VA, TN, MI, PA, and much worse than others.
Wow. Unreal.
Yep, the regulatory structure has got completely out of sync with the world we live in, but no one questions it and so those running it assume they are acting appropriately when in fact they are doing so much damage to our industry.