Why Notre Dame's Virtual Wine Tasting Didn't Happen

We explore the challenges and solutions using a real life example that was so close to being perfect.

I am fortunate to be speaking on the panels of Notre Dame’s Sláinte! Wine, Beer & Spirits Industry Symposium. I am excited to participate as the event brings every aspect of the wine industry together-- inventors, producers, distributors, regulators, retailers, and some of the best legal minds in the industry (and for those in the legal profession, the opportunity to earn some CLE credits). 

There is online access as well for those not able to make it on site. 

Now here’s the situation. The organizers of this wine event thought it would be great to send 2 bottles of wine, from two different producers, to every virtual attendee so that they could participate in a tasting. In addition, the University would be marketing two excellent craft producers owned by alumni. What a brilliant idea to have a social consumer event and promote up and coming craft brands. 

Well, that’s where the wheels fall off. 

The organizers were shocked when informed that what they thought was going to be easy to achieve was not logistically or even legally possible. 

Here is what would have to happen, assuming that like most conferences, people from all over the country would be attending. 

The two wineries would either: 

1. need their own direct ship licenses to 40+ states; or 

2. have a distributor in each state a participant was from; or  

3. have a combination of the first two options.  

Looking deeper at the first option, each winery would need to ship their one bottle to each attendee. That is a logistical nightmare. The customer would have double the shipping costs, double the packaging, two tracking numbers and consequently double the impact on the environment. 

Option two, the wholesaler being involved, would require each winery to send their cases to the wholesaler, who would then need to find a retailer in each state who could then ship or deliver the one bottle to each of the recipients. 

The best solution for all parties would be to have a single retailer buy the two wines, package them up into one shipment and ship the two bottles to the virtual conference attendees. This, however, is not possible by any retailer in the country, as not all states allow direct shipments from out of state retailers.  

When you look at a real life example like the above, it does make the argument that any licensed retailer should be able to freely ship just like any of the other direct sales channels. 

I do hope we get to talk about this subject at the conference as it is such a clear example of how broken the current system is, but yet it is so easy to correct with correct state licensing.  

I hope you enjoy this example. If you have the time and inclination, check out the conference (in-person and virtual registration closes 11/12 11:59PM). But know, there will be no virtual tasting, your state legislatures are the reason why.