New Wine Imports At Your Local Wine Shops
A Few Exclusives At Portalis:
Chateau Grinon 2005 Bergerac Blanc $15
Domaine De Mougin 2005 Vin de Payes D'Oc $14
Chateau Montaigut 2003 Côtes de Bourg $20
Guibeau La Fourvielle 2003 St. Emilion $27
Chateau du Grand Caumont Tradition 2003 Corbières $16
Many of you may have heard about the lawsuit filed by Costco regarding the Washington State Liquor laws. We sat down with Jenz Strecke owner of Portalis -- a Ballard Neighborhood Wine Bar -- to find out how the law has changed his business
While all states have alcohol distributors, most states allow breweries and wineries to sell directly to retailers and consumers. Here in Washington things are/were a bit more strict. If you ever tried to have wine shipped to you directly from a winery in California, you probably found that it was prohibited.
The upshot as we understand it (and we realize that we may still not complete understand it) is that up until recently all beer and wine sales in Washington State were required to go through a distributor. Meaning that if your favorite wine was without a Washington distributer, you could not buy the wine here.
The back and forth of this lawsuit has produced little change in the system (an appeals court recently upheld the state’s position). However, lawmakers saw the problem faced by consumers and changed the laws to allow retailers and consumers to import wine directly from out-of-state winemakers.
Portalis Wine Shop on Old Ballard Ave
The original lawsuit brought by Costco was primarily cost-driven -- the aim being to cut out both the distributers and their mark-ups. The changes in the law have had an immediate effect of improving the variety of what is offered in local wine shops.
Our go-to local wine shop is Portalis Wines on Old Ballard Avenue. Owners Jenz Strecker and Julie Howe have taken advantage of these changes by importing wine directly from Europe. All of the wines they have brought in have never before been introduced to Washington State.
On a wine buying trip through France, Jenz met wine trader Francoise Blanchard who introduced him to a world of new French and Spanish wines. After an arduous selection process, Jenz and Julie loaded 750 cases of wines on to a container and shipped them to Seattle. Many of the wines fall into the $15 – 30 range and none of them are avaiable anywhere else in Washington State.
Cheers!
