[custom_frame_left]
[/custom_frame_left] The legal issues surrounding interstate shipping of alcohol confuse me.
Prohibition was over decades ago! Why must there still be such restrictions on sending wine across state borders? Moreover, why must these restrictions vary from state to state, and company to company?
It's not only confusing, but it's extremely frustrating for us, the consumer.
Apparently, the process of acquiring the necessary licenses to mail / ship / send / deliver wine from one state to another is tedious and time consuming (I can also assume it's expensive).
In order to be allowed to deliver wine to your state, a wine club must register with the state, apply for the license to mail to the state and, if approved, finally be authorized to ship wine to your state.
When you are preparing to buy wine from a wine club, wouldn't you like to know, up front, if they are authorized to ship wine to you? Or, would you like to find out the hard way, like me?
You see, I learned about a new wine club (by TastingRoom.com) and I was super-crazy excited about this wine club. (It's so unique, when you learn about it, you, too may be as eager to try it as I am.)
As of several years ago, my state (Michigan) seemed to be on the “authorized shipping list” of pretty-much every wine club I've tried. So, I didn't consider “does this wine club ship to my state” to be a problem. (Update: We've created a great resource that helps you find all the wine clubs that ship to Michigan, including our top picks that ship to MI.)
Thus, I simply began the ordering process. (With TastingRoom.com, you simply pay $9.95 total, and get a cool little “tasting kit” so they can determine your wine tastes and create a customized wine club for you. It sounds great to me.)
But it didn't end well.
As I was entering my shipping details, I simply couldn't find my state in the drop down menu! (I thought there was some sort of mistake, as this hasn't happened to me before.)
Luckily (or embarrassingly?), I recorded this ordering process on video. So, you can watch me get totally flustered at this process.
Is that how you want to learn that the wine club you want cannot ship to your state? Do you want to invest time and effort researching a wine club, get all excited about it — only to find they can't ship to you, at the time of order?
Argh.
No. No you don't.
Instead, I have a suggestion:
Start your quest to find the best wine club for you with our “Ship To State Directory”.
Instead of starting with the wine club you're interested in, filter out all the wine clubs that do NOT ship to your state. So, you can start by learning of the wine clubs that CAN ship to your state. (Simply find your state, and click. You'll be presented with a list of wine clubs that ship to your state.)
Now, you can begin your research — and you won't waste any time researching a club that doesn't ship to you.
Doesn't that sound a lot better than finding out the way I did?
Have you ever tried to ship wine to your state with no luck?
