Beer and pretzels may go together like wine and cheese.
But not in New York where you can buy beer with your pretzels but wine…that’s another story.
If you’re looking for the perfect food pairing for that bottle of Riesling you picked up, you’ll need to make two trips. Or cross state lines. Because New York is one of ten states where you can’t buy wine in a grocery store. And you can’t buy food in a liquor store.
Chris Colloca doesn’t think that’s fair. He’s the owner of Colloca Estate Winery in Fairhaven, an hour east of Rochester and north of Syracuse, on the edge of the Finger Lakes.
“To be able to stop and pick up some beef for beef bourguignon and not have the ability to buy a bottle of red wine to make the beef bourguignon, to say nothing to having it alongside of it, it hurts us,” Colloca says.
He sells about half the 6,000 to 8,000 bottles of wine he produces every year during tastings or at one of the dozens of waterfront weddings he hosts along an inlet of Lake Ontario. The rest he sells through a distributor to restaurants and liquor stores.
Why NY prohibits wine sales in grocery stores
A Prohibition-era restriction keeps his wine out of grocery stores.
And wine store owners like Sunil Khurana want to keep it that way.
Khurana imports wines from all over the world to his Westchester Wine Warehouse on Tarrytown Road in White Plains — from Greece, India, Morocco, Italy.
“New York is a wine drinking state,” Khurana said. “We like our choices as New Yorkers and choice brings that level of confidence that stores can attain for their customers because they specialize in certain things.”
He has wine aficionados on staff who’ve worked across the world who teach customers about wine.
What would happen to the business model if people can pick up wine when they’re getting their groceries?
Debate: Grocery stores want to sell wine in NY. What changes could be coming for state laws?
“We as Americans love convenience and, sure, who wouldn’t like to get a set of four tires when we’re buying our milk in a grocery store, you know? What better than that,” Khurana says. “But at the end of the day grocery stores are going to carry a certain batch of products that they can get great deals from major suppliers and major brands. What happens then?”
Smaller stores will go out of business and storefronts will be emptied out, he warns.
A long-running debate over wine in grocery stores in NY
Theirs is a perennial winter-spring debate in Albany, as predictable as the cherry blossoms bloom.
Wine in grocery store legislation has been kicking around the state Capitol for over a decade. It’s been talked about for so long it’s all starting to take on the feel of a business school lecture hall debate. Lots of talk, little action.
Amendments have been proposed. Polls have been conducted. Reports have been written.
The bill’s chief sponsor, state Sen. Liz Krueger, a Manhattan Democrat, added an amendment last year that would create a financial incentive for grocery stores to sell New York-produced wines. Western New York Republican state Sen. George Borrello has pushed a bill that would require grocery stores to only sell wine produced in New York or from ingredients grown here.
Both sides are backed by money, heavyweight trade groups and public relations firms. Big grocery store chains have formed the New York State of Wine Coalition with a website that makes it easy for New Yorkers to send a pre-written email to state lawmakers expressing support.
On the other side is the Metro Package Store Association, which represents some 3,300 wine and liquor store owners, including about 250 in the Lower Hudson Valley. They’ve allied with organized labor to cast the fight as a David-and-Goliath battle.
“The ones to benefit from this will be the billionaire supermarket chain owners, while working class New Yorkers will be steamrolled,” said Michael Correra, executive director of the association and the owner of a Brooklyn liquor store.
Stores: NY supermarkets want to sell wine. Liquor stores say it will put them out of business
Winery owners like Colloca are divided on the issue. Their trade group has shied away from taking a stand.
But Colloca says competition is good for everyone. He uses the analogy of the mom-and-pop bakery to make his case.
“Bakeries are still alive and well,” he said. “I’m’ sure there was a push at some point ‘Oh this big conglomerate is going to come in and they’re going to make croissants and nobody is going to come to our bakery anymore.’ I think the cream rises to the top and I think everybody is going to be OK.”
NY wineries could use the boost
And he says New York’s wineries could use the boost. Young people are drinking less. A November report sponsored by the pro-wine in grocery stores coalition said New York has lost ground to other big wine-producing states in recent years, slipping to fourth in value of production in 2023 from second behind California in 2001.
“The wine industry is hurting, and we do need some help and this is a perfect time to give some help to those growers and producers that contribute significantly to New York state’s revenues,” Colloca said.
Khurana doesn’t think selling wine in grocery stores is the answer.
He thinks he and his staff are better equipped to tell customers which wine goes best with lamb chops than the teenaged clerk at the grocery store.
“I mean you’re lucky to find someone to help you and tell you where the ice cream is,” he said. “That’s tough already.”
Thomas C. Zambito covers energy, transportation and economic growth for the USA TODAY Network’s New York State team. He’s won dozens of state and national writing awards from the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Deadline Club and others during a decades-long career that’s included stops at the New York Daily News, The Star-Ledger of Newark and The Record of Hackensack. He can be reached at tzambito@lohud.com
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Will New York approve wine in grocery stores this year? What to know
Reporting by Thomas C. Zambito, New York State Team / Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
