We're On Our Way, Florida!
We are again able to ship wine to consumers in Florida!
If you are wondering why were able to ship to Florida, then could not, but now can again, here is some background information: On August 5, a U.S. District Court Judge in Florida signed an order preventing the State from enforcing its prohibitions against direct-to-consumer shipments from out-of-state wineries. While this order effectively opened Florida to unrestricted shipments from out-of-state wineries (or so we thought), we later learned that we could not ship wine to consumers until the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages created procedures to allow for legal wine shipments. On February 16, 2006, they finally announced these new procedures. While there are no quantity limitations on what we can ship to consumers in Florida, we are responsible for paying a gallonage excise tax and Florida residents will be responsible for paying a 6% sales tax.
Though we do consider these new regulations to be a positive step forward, it is still possible that Florida state legislature will take up one of the four direct shipping permit bills that have been introduced this session. If you feel strongly about receiving wine shipments from wineries like Sokol Blosser, we encourage you to write your legislators! Visit www.freethegrapes.com for an easy way to do this.
If you have any questions about Sokol Blosser, shipping wine to Florida or anything else, please don’t hesitate to contact us.