This is been mentioned on other blogs, but it is the first time I have seen a Virginia paper talking about how the new wine shipping laws are a mixed bag for Virginia wineries:


Despite this, there are wineries in the Fredericksburg area that have found the bureaucracy surrounding the shipping process too thick to conquer right now.

Hartwood Winery in Stafford and Oak Crest Vineyard & Winery in King George report excellent on-site sales, and are not shipping wine anywhere, in-state or out.

"Right now, we've been selling out from the winery itself," said Dorothy Brandts, co-owner of Oak Crest Winery, located near State Route 218. "We wanted to let all the dust settle" before shipping, she said.

Hartwood Winery opted not to secure a license for shipping, a requirement in Virginia.

The process is so complicated, it would be "the same thing as starting a new winery," said Dave Barber, a wine educator at Hartwood Winery near U.S. 17.


The article also mentions Prince Michel, which reports that out of state orders comprise 2-3% of its sales. As a consumer, I very much appreciate the benefits of being able to order wines directly from the winery. But, it seems like the state and federal governments are putting too much red tape in the way of small wineries. There needs to be a way to simplify the process, a way to make it easy for both small and large wineries to serve their customers and attract new ones.