Interstate Wine Shipments

February 17, 2009 9:51 AM

Can I have wine shipped interstate to Minnesota? Free The Grapes, a website for a wine trade association, says that Minnesota allows direct shipments. But Wine.com says they can not ship to Minnesota because of state regulations. What is the law in MN?
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Best answer: Section 340A.417, SHIPMENTS INTO MINNESOTA. (bolding mine)

(a) Notwithstanding ... any provision of this chapter, a winery licensed in a state other than Minnesota, or a winery located in Minnesota, may ship, for personal use and not for resale, not more than two cases of wine, containing a maximum of nine liters per case, in any calendar year to any resident of Minnesota age 21 or over. Delivery of a shipment under this section may not be deemed a sale in this state.

...

(c) No person may (1) advertise shipments authorized under this section, (2) by advertisement or otherwise, solicit shipments authorized by this section, or (3) accept orders for shipments authorized by this section by use of the Internet. No shipper located outside Minnesota may advertise interstate reciprocal wine shipments in Minnesota.

posted by Johnny Assay at 10:10 AM on February 17, 2009

Response by poster: So a MN resident can order directly from a vineyard, but not from an Internet reseller, if I am reading that correctly.

Thanks.
posted by Steve_at_Linnwood at 10:35 AM on February 17, 2009

Go to your local county wine/beer retailer. Often times no-ship states allow for other merchants to ship into them for a nominal fee. You can always find grey market shippers who do it illegally for a fee as well, or a friend...
posted by stratastar at 11:32 AM on February 17, 2009

I've been offered a service before where an out-of-state shipper would 1. ask me to call them on an 800 number and place an order, and 2. drop off the product at some sort of trans-shipment service from where I could, basically, "ship it to myself" here in MN. Sounded convoluted, I didn't take them up on it.

You're correct that online retailers and sites that list state-by-state regs can have conflicting and outdated info--I've run into that, too.
posted by gimonca at 12:23 PM on February 17, 2009