Perhaps the Internet's most far-reaching effect is its creation of an entirely new marketplace. Consumers now shuttle through cyberspace and gallop across state lines to buy from distant merchants. Of course, the Commerce Clause is tempered by the Twenty-First Amendment, which allows state governments to regulate if and how alcohol enters their borders. New technology, however, is making it exceedingly difficult for states to completely control how residents purchase alcohol. But lawmakers are trying nonetheless.
Some penalties are staggering.
Making matters even worse for vintners, just writing about their wines can turn them into criminals. That means a California winemaker who posts his prices online is unwittingly breaking New York's laws when someone in Buffalo retrieves the farmer's price list from its Web site. The effect of these free speech and economic prohibitions is greatest on small wineries. These farms don't produce enough wine for the wholesalers licensed sell to New York's retailers. Because the vast majority of the 1,600 U.S. vineyards aren't represented in typical stores, direct sales are the only way small farms can survive.