There is a proposed bill pending before the New York Senate, S2473-2011 that would require, under certain circumstances, out-of-state shipments of alcohol into New York to be stored in-state for at least 48 hours at a licensed New York storage facility before being distributed to New York retailers. This “at rest” requirement means that an out-of-state winery could no longer ship wine to a New Jersey warehouse to store the wine until the wine is distributed from the New Jersey warehouse directly to New York retailers. Rather, the out-of-state winery would need to ship directly to a New York warehouse or ship the wine to New Jersey, but the wine would then need to be shipped to a New York storage facility and remain there for at least 48 hours before it could be distributed to New York retailers. The proposed regulation would have no ramifications on the ability to ship directly to New York consumers.
The justification for the bill is to, supposedly, put New York on equal footing with other states that require “at rest” periods. The “at rest” period requirement would only be triggered if the out-of-state shipper was from a state that also had an “at rest” requirement. However, the proposal has small distributors crying foul and the industry concerned that this change could, among other possibilities, decrease the volume of wine sold in New York, impact the availability of smaller producers’ wines, and increase the price of wine.