2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 61 - Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages › Chapter 6 - Alcoholic Beverage Control Act › Section 61-6-1640. Sampling of wine, cordials, and distilled spirits.

Notwithstanding the provisions of this subarticle or any other provision of law, an establishment licensed pursuant to Article 5 of this chapter is authorized to conduct samplings of wines in excess of sixteen and one-half percent alcohol, cordials, and distilled spirits, if the sampling is conducted as follows:
(1) the establishment must have a permanent seating capacity of fifty or more persons;
(2) samples may not be offered from more than four products at any one time;
(3) the sampling must be held in the bar area of a licensed establishment and all open bottles must be visible at all times. All open bottles must be removed at the conclusion of the tasting;
(4) samples must be less than one-half ounce for each product sampled;
(5) a person may not be served more than one sample of each product;
(6) sampling may not be offered for more than four hours;
(7) at least five days before the sampling, a letter detailing the specific date and hours of the sampling must be mailed first class to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division;
(8) a sample may not be offered to, or allowed to be consumed by, an intoxicated person or a person under the age of twenty-one years;
(9) a licensed establishment may not offer more than one sampling each day; and
(10) the sampling must be conducted by the manufacturer or wholesaler or an agent of the manufacturer or wholesaler.
HISTORY: 2003 Act No. 70, Section 1; 2005 Act No. 139, Section 15; 2021 Act No. 60 (S.619), Section 6, eff May 17, 2021.
Editor's Note
2021 Act No. 60, Sections 1 and 11, provide as follows:
"SECTION 1. The General Assembly finds and declares that:
"(A) The State has a substantial interest in regulating alcoholic liquors and other beverages containing alcohol; the activities of manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, and retailers; and the influences that affect the consumption levels of alcoholic liquors and other beverages containing alcohol by the people of the State.
"(B) The State has a substantial interest in exercising its police power to promote the public health, safety, and welfare of the State by regulating the business of manufacturing, distributing, and retail sales of alcoholic liquors and other beverages containing alcohol in the manner and to the extent allowed by law to promote and preserve public health and safety through legitimate, nonprotectionist measures, which include regulating and controlling alcoholic beverage transactions in this State and the means and manner in which licensed micro-distilleries and alcoholic liquor manufacturers may sell alcoholic beverages to the state's qualifying consumers.
"(C) Selling alcoholic liquors from manufacturers outside the State directly to residents of this State poses a serious threat to the state's efforts to prevent underage drinking, to state revenue collections, and to the public health and safety of the state's residents.
"(D) By this act, the General Assembly intends to promote the public health, safety, and welfare of residents of this State with laws intended to strictly regulate alcoholic liquors and other beverages containing alcohol by preserving and promoting a robust, stable system of distribution of beverages containing alcohol to the public that does not provide for economic protectionism. Excessive use of alcoholic liquors and other beverages containing alcohol has wide-ranging deleterious health effects, including death. The General Assembly acknowledges that, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control, during the period from 2011 to 2015, an average of one thousand six hundred seventy-nine of this state's residents suffered alcohol attributed deaths due to excessive alcohol use and the rate of binge drinking in this State is ranked among the highest in the nation. The General Assembly acknowledges that, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this State had two hundred eighty-five alcohol-impaired driving fatalities in 2019, which accounted for twenty-eight percent of the total traffic fatalities in the State. Attributed deaths due to alcohol-impaired driving in this State is ranked among the highest in the nation.
"(E) This act has been enacted pursuant to the authority granted to the State by the Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the powers reserved to the states under the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and the inherent powers of the State under the Constitution of the State of South Carolina, 1895, and the statutes promulgated thereunder. It is the intent of the General Assembly that this act do all of the following:
"(1) further regulate and control transactions in this State as to beverages containing alcohol under the control and supervision of the Department of Revenue;
"(2) strictly regulate alcoholic beverage transactions by fostering moderation and responsibility in the use and consumption of beverages containing alcohol;
"(3) promote and assure the public's interest in fair and efficient distribution and quality control of alcoholic beverages in this State;
"(4) promote orderly marketing of alcoholic beverages;
"(5) prevent unfair business practices, discrimination, and undue control of one segment of the alcoholic beverage industry by any other segment;
"(6) foster vigorous and healthy competition in the alcoholic beverage industry and protect the interests of consumers against fraud and misleading practices in the sale of alcoholic beverages, and avoid problems associated with indiscriminate price cutting and excessive advertising of alcoholic beverages;
"(7) provide for an orderly system of public revenues by facilitating the collection and accountability of this State and local excise taxes;
"(8) facilitate the collection of state and local revenue;
"(9) maintain trade stability and provide for the continuation of control and orderly processing by the State over the regulation of alcoholic beverage manufacturing locations and the process of selling alcoholic beverages to the state's consumers;
"(10) ensure that the Department of Revenue and State Law Enforcement Division are able to monitor licensed operations through on-site inspections to confirm compliance with state law and that any alcoholic beverages shipped into, distributed, and sold throughout this State:
"(a) have been registered for sale in this State with the Department of Revenue, as prescribed by law;
"(b) are not subject to a government-mandated or supplier-initiated recall;
"(c) are not counterfeit;
"(d) are labeled in conformance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations;
"(e) can be inspected and tested by the Department of Revenue or the State Law Enforcement Division; and
"(f) are not prohibited by this State;
"(11) promote and maintain a sound, stable, and viable three-tier system of distribution of beverages containing alcohol to the public; and
"(12) ensure that statutes and regulations relating to alcoholic beverages exist to serve the interests of the State of South Carolina and its citizens rather than to serve or protect the interests of market participants by adopting protectionist measures with no demonstrable connection to the state's legitimate interests in regulating alcoholic beverages."
"SECTION 11. A state agency with regulations specifying alcohol content percentages different from the percentages passed in this act must promulgate revised regulations to conform to the changes in this act. Until such time as the regulations are conformed, the percentages in the statutory provisions passed in this act supersede any differing percentages in the regulations."
Effect of Amendment
2021 Act No. 60, Section 6, in the first undesignated paragraph, substituted "sixteen and one-half percent" for "sixteen percent".