BusinessTN

It's likely that even the most uninformed Tennesseans heard about it. Throughout March and into April, two pieces of wine-related legislation captured newspaper and television headlines across the state. One would have allowed direct-to-consumer wine shipping to wet counties—an act that currently draws a felony charge for both the seller (out of state or in) who ships the alcohol and the consumer who receives it. The other, which garnered the most media attention, would have allowed the sale of wine in retail food stores that do business in wet counties.

In the end, neither bill could withstand the politics of it all. In an election year filled with promises of campaign contributions and constituent votes, they were relegated to the land of the summer study committee, (which, in a logic peculiar to politics, will likely convene this winter).

Though the reporters have moved on, and the editorials have subsided, both bills—and more importantly, the larger issue they represent—remain. Are Tennessee's alcohol distribution laws, born of Prohibition, still relevant in today's marketplace? Can those laws—and the three-tier system they sustain—withstand a prolonged, if somewhat disjointed, assault from wineries and consumers? And is the Volunteer version of the producer-wholesaler-retailer system a flaunting of Free Market principles, or a necessary exception to them?