All Tennessee Wineries, including Arrington Vineyards,
are in real danger of being forced to close!
The STATE of TENNESSEE was sued in Federal Court over direct wine shipping rights.
The 6th Circuit Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on shipping wine. However, while reviewing Tennessee’s wine laws, the Court declared parts of the Tennessee Winery Law unconstitutional. The Court is demanding changes to the TN Grape and Winery Law.
The Tennessee Farm Wineries Association (TFWA) has introduced bills in the TN Legislature to fix the unconstitutional language in Tennessee's Grape and Wine Law per the US 6th Circuit Court ruling. House Bill 1549 and Senate Bill 0944 will fix these constitutional problems and allow TN wineries to continue operating just as they have for the last 30 years.
Without this new legislation, TN wineries will probably be forced to close their doors by the Federal Court, leading to the loss of over 1600 jobs and the loss of over $140 Million of positive economic impact in TN.
PLEASE contact your TN Representative and TN Senator and ask them to CO-SPONSOR HB1549/SB0944. This is CRITICAL for the survival of the TN Wine Industry!
Also, PLEASE contact Gov. Phil Bredesen's office and ask him to speak up and support TN Law and Tennessee's response to the US 6th Circuit Court decision.
Your expediency is crucial! These bills are moving QUICKLY through the TN Legislature.
To find out who your state legislators are, go to:
www.capitol.tn.gov/legislators
or
www.votesmart.org.
Gov. Bredesen can be reached at:
Governor's Office
Tennessee State Capitol
Nashville, TN 37243-0001
Phone: 615.741.2001
Fax: 615.532.9711
Email: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us
2 comments:
Why is an issue that's critical to the survival of the wine business in Tennessee getting such minimal coverage? Where's the noise?
I found nothing about it on the individual winery sites, themselves, and little about it on the TFWA site...virtually zero activity on the TN Wine Lover's site...prescious little Google noise. The tax advantages for a revenue-poor Tennessee government are real, both for intrastate and interstate sales. Tennessee state leadership should be falling over themselves to approve the changes.
Arrington Vineyard should be applauded for its last-minute email campaign.
The industry needs to speak up and out beyond third-party blogs!
Thanks Dave for your comment! I don't understand why I haven't heard about this on the news! I love the vineyard and I believe it really enriches the community. It is one of the best additions and has added a wonderful marketing attraction for my listings in the area. I wrote a letter to Glen Casada, my Representative. I hope the word will spread beyond my blog.
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