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J. Tillman at the Mohawk - Giveaway
The past few days have been fantastic for Austin's oenophiles: late last week Governer Perry signed into law Senate Bill 877, allowing wineries across the country to ship their wares directly to consumers here in Texas. Today, the US Supreme Court took this one step further, effectively declaring it unconstitutional to prevent out-of-state wineries and Internet merchants from shipping wines to customers in states who would otherwise require them to go through large distributors.
Not surprisingly, teetotalling party poopers in the Supreme Court (Thomas and Rehnquist, among others) criticized the ruling, harrumphing that this would release the floodgates of underage drinking. Which is total bunk, of course - certainly nowhere in our highschool vernacular was there room for Niebaum-Coppola or Domaine Chandon, what with all the easily bribed winos lurking about any self-respecting liquor store.
You can thank Democrat San Antonio state senator Frank Madla for setting the wheels in motion on Bill 877, which is primarily intended to benefit our 200+ local wineries.
More cocktail party facts after the jump...
-Texas is ranked #5 in wine production in the nation, last year producing over 1.7 million gallons of wine.-The local wine industry generates over $170 million a year from sales and winery tours
-Of Texas wine sales,
60% are from supermarkets,
23% from liquor stores,
8% from wine tasting rooms, and
9% from festivals and private clubs-Texas actually preempted California in producing wine, with the first winery established near El Paso by Franciscan monks in 1662
-When the pesky Grape Phylloxera (a cousin of the common aphid) ravaged much of France's wine estates in the late nineteenth century, European wine production was nearly wiped out were it not for the gallant efforts of Texan T.V. Munson and his resistant Texas rootstock. Ironically enough, it was later discovered that we sent the bug over there in the first place. Hah!
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