I have always felt that the limitations on the production of certain wines versus the mass availability of others has set in motion a vinous situation that offers both barriers to both and yet also opportunity for a different view of marketing, selling and moving wine.

Even though the US three-tier system gets bashed about in many circles (especially those in Europe), there is a need for the system, but that system needs a bit of adjustment and some more inventive ways to work with it and in some cases without it.

The last couple of years has seen several attempts at beating the system, skipping the system and downright cheating the system. Now we are seeing some legal entities start having a serious look at some of these to make some of those adjustments. I’d like to think that some of these considerations were pushed on those entities a bit by the Social Media and real media out there. People like Steve Heimoff, Jeff Siegel, W Blake Gray, Rob McMillan and Tom Wark have written and blogged many times about the difficulties in getting and shipping wine. The NYSLA and Californian ABC have begun to hear those rattles and there seems to be some adjustments being considered. But fear not the big industrial machines will have their say to keep the status quo and use big lobbying dollars in every way possible.

Here are a couple of fine developments in this fight for equity…

Tom Wark along with a host of others have started a charity called American Wine Consumer Coalition. While Rob McMillan has a blog devoted to the wine business with many excellent topics covered from a bankers view. Then there are the very recent availability and limited production issues being discussed by Jeff Siegel and the NYSLA.

The more these topics are shaken-up the more good adjustments that will happen to update the movement of wine about the globe.