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Bills to Promote Wine Ferment

Posted on: Friday, 8 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 8--Legislators are used to being on the receiving end of wining and dining. Now they want to do something for the wine.

They're looking to help North Carolina's small but growing wine industry -- from the vine to the glass. A stack of proposals aimed at boosting wine sales, wine education and winery tourism are swirling through legislative committee rooms.

"It's good for the tourism thing," said Rep. Pryor Gibson, an Anson County Democrat who is sponsoring several of the wine bills. "It's good for fine dining."

None has become law, but a bill that would bring wine tastings back to grocery stores passed the Senate on Thursday and is close to final legislative approval.

Grocery stores that had been offering wine tastings in recent years stopped in October because of a disagreement over the rules. The bill clarifies the law for such tastings.

"This is one of the steps the General Assembly has taken to help the whole industry," said Dick Carlton, a lobbyist for Harris Teeter grocery stores.

Legislators' interest in aiding the wine industry includes a $500,000 budget proposal to help Surry Community College build a center for its grape-growing and wine-making program. The bill on retail sales includes a section that gives the school limited ability to sell the wine it produces.

To put a bigger emphasis on tourism, legislators want to move the N.C. Grape Council, which aids research, education and marketing, from the state Department of Agriculture to the Commerce Department, and add "wine" to the council's name.

North Carolina is best known for its sweet muscadine wines. But wineries in the Piedmont and the mountains, including the fast-growing segment in the Yadkin Valley, are trying to build their reputations around fine wines. Those who support moving the Grape Council said the Commerce Department, which has travel and tourism as one of its specialties, would help direct tourists toward the vineyards.

"We think that our emerging wineries can learn a lot from the Carowinds of the world," said Jerry Douglas, senior vice president of marketing and sales at Biltmore Estate in Asheville.

Another legislative proposal would give more money -- $500,000 rather than the usual $350,000 -- to the council, which is funded from the excise taxes on wine produced and sold in North Carolina. Retailers say other legislative proposals, including one they say will shield them from a wholesalers fee when they buy less than a full case of one type of wine, will help keep prices down.

The House and Senate each passed their own versions of a bill with this provision, which also includes moving the Grape Council.

Doug Diesing, owner of the Seaboard Wine Warehouse in Raleigh, said the fee would limit store selection or drive up prices.

"Most restaurants buy by the bottle," Diesing said. "If they have to pay more by the bottle to stock their bar, they have to raise their price."

Shielding retailers from the fee would "save a lot of small wineries from getting booted off the shelf," said Margo Knight, the Grape Council's executive director.

This is shaping up to be a big year for alcohol laws, but changes are not yet final. A Senate opponent of a bill that had been sailing through the legislature that would allow breweries to make and sell beer with a higher alcohol content pulled it back Thursday from a floor vote.

The $500,000 proposed for Surry Community College is far less than the initial request for $5 million. But Rep. Jim Harrell, a Surry County Democrat, said the college could still build the center for its grape and wine studies, set in a fast-growing section of the state's wine industry.

The center could be open to vineyard and winery workers who want to come in for courses, Harrell said, and to amateurs looking to get the best from their wine-making kits.

Students can use the knowledge for entertainment, he said, or "if they want, they can start their own vineyard and market their own wine."

N.C. WINE FACTS:

--12th in nation in wine production

--48 wine producers, up from one in 1985

--About 600,000 gallons produced in 2004, worth about $34 million

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Source: The News & Observer

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