New Kansas Law Provides Bottle Sales at Events
Kansas wineries are very excited at the new regulatory developments in our state. A law was recently passed to allow farm wineries to sell by the bottle at events across the state. Samples must still be free, but this new law will allow farm wineries to have more sales outside their winery than in the past.
Many communities are seeing bottle sales at events as a way to raise money. These communities are having large wine tasting events with tickets being sold to the public. Most recently our winery, Wyldewood Cellars, participated in the DeSoto WineSong; the Paola Sip and Stroll; Paxico Blues Fest; and also at Wamego.
Because of the large attendance at the initial event of this type – the DeSoto event- wineries were put in the awkward situation of having to use most, if not all, of the wine they brought for tastings and not sales. This caused a real hardship among some of the smaller and newer wineries which are still getting production levels up and need to turn as much of what they produce into sales as they possibly can.
This issue was discussed with both event planners and with Kansas Alcohol Beverage Control. After carefully reviewing the issue, a meeting was called with the State ABC Committee. Afterwards, Kansas ABC informed the farm wineries that to alieviate that problem and to continue to support the winery industry and it’s growth in the state, it had been decided that an “appearance fee” could be paid to the farm wineries for attending the events. While not directly paying for any of the wine sampled, it would serve to help defray part of the cost of participating for the farm wineries allowing more wineries to be able to attend the events.
This new option has been working very well for both the events and the participating farm wineries – as a real solution to the problem that has benefited both parties.
A new form was insituted – to go along with the new law – ABC-842. It is used for both sampling only and sampling and selling events. Approval must be submitted and obtained – on this form – to participate in events. The form is simple form to fill out. It allows both the ABC to keep track of all of the events and activities the farm wineries are participating in, and the form provides documentation that each winery is properly registered and approved for their event.
Kansas wineries are looking forward to a very busy year, as these new changes will be bringing us closer to the goal of developing our industry as a larger agritourism resource within our state. It is a big step in a good direction – and we appreciate the help Kansas ABC has given us in making it happen.
Wyldewood Cellars was begun by the brother & sister team of Dr. John Brewer and Merry (Brewer) Bauman. Growing from a small shop in downtown Mulvane in Dec. 1994 to the largest winery in Kansas – with over 500 International Awards to their credit.
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