Below you will find an excerpt from the mission statement page of the Free the Grapes!! organization. I can't tell you dear freinds how frustrated I've been since leaving Seattle about not being able to get my favorite wines from WA State vintners. I'm still on a number of winery mailing lists and when I called DeLille Cellars to try to order some of the Summer 2007 releases, they were very sorry to inform me that they were prohibited from shipping to me directly here in Wisconsin. Wisconsin's Governor Doyle vetoed language in the Budget Bill last October that would have replaced Wisconsin’s ‘reciprocal’ direct shipping language with a permit-style system working successfully for wineries and consumers throughout the U.S. Also, because of this, Oregon wineries will cut-off direct shipments to Wisconsin consumers in January, when Oregon’s new permit-style law goes into effect. So as it is now, if the wine I want isn't distributed to local wine retailers, I'm out of luck. This is extremely disheartening. To raise awareness about this issue, please help me spread the word about Free the Grapes!! so that I and other wine lovers around the country can enjoy our wines of choice--I will never be able to bring back enough of the wines I want on my flights out of Seattle. You, my dear friends, and the fabulous Washington wine industry are the two things I miss the most. See below for the excerpt I mentioned above.
Begin quote:
Free the Grapes! supports augmenting, not replacing, the three-tier system with the controls and regulations necessary to respect local laws, to avoid underage access and to provide provisions to make tax payments. We think it's wrong that wholesalers are telling consumers which wines they can and cannot enjoy. America's 4,000+ wineries produce over 10,000 new wines each vintage, more wines than distributors or retailers can logistically can stock and sell. And less than 5% of wine production is ever likely to be shipped directly to consumers. (snip) Free the Grapes! is energizing all lovers of the grape to contact their legislators and to sign-up to receive the Free the Grapes! email newsletter.
End quote
Go to http://www.freethegrapes.org/ for more information.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers!!
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Just testing to make sure this works!
Test #2--select radio button for nickname instead of anonymous to indicate identity....
Joan: Don't this sitting down--organize a "Boycott Wisconsin Cheese" movement. That will get the Governor's attention! Cheers--Leonard
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