2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 61 - Alcohol and Alcoholic Beverages › Chapter 6 - Alcoholic Beverage Control Act › Section 61-6-1035. Sampling of wines.

Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 61-6-1500, the sampling of wines containing over sixteen and one-half percent by volume of alcohol, cordials, and other distilled spirits sold in a retail alcoholic liquor store is authorized if the sampling is conducted as follows:
(1) No sample may be offered from more than four products at one time.
(2) The sample is limited to products from no more than one wholesaler at one time.
(3) No more than one bottle of each of the four products to be sampled may be opened.
(4) The sampling must be held in a designated tasting area of the retail liquor store and all open bottles must be visible at all times. All open bottles must be removed at the conclusion of the tasting.
(5) Samples must be less than one-half ounce for each product sampled.
(6) No person may be served more than one sample of each product.
(7) No sampling may be offered for longer than four hours.
(8) At least ten 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. The letter must include a copy of a certificate of liability insurance for the manufacturer, the retail establishment, or its agent, conducting the tastings.
(9) No sample may be offered to, or allowed to be consumed by, an intoxicated person or a person under the age of twenty-one years. This person must not be allowed to loiter on the store premises.
(10) The tastings must be conducted by the manufacturer, retailer, or an agent of the manufacturer or retailer, and must not be conducted by a wholesaler, an employee of a wholesaler, or an agent of a wholesaler.
(11) No retail alcoholic liquor store may offer more than one sampling per day.
(12) All product samples used for tastings must be purchased by the retailer from a South Carolina Licensed Wholesaler as required by Section 61-6-100(3).
(13) All associated costs for the tasting must be paid for by the manufacturer, the retailer, or its agent, conducting the tasting.
(14) Mixers, which must be nonalcoholic and carry zero percent of alcohol by weight, may be provided in conjunction with the tasting, but the mixers must be provided free of charge.
(15) Store mixers used, but not sold, in conjunction with tastings.
HISTORY: 2002 Act No. 335, Section 1; 2011 Act No. 66, Section 1, eff June 17, 2011; 2017 Act No. 62 (H.3137), Section 3, eff May 19, 2017; 2021 Act No. 60 (S.619), Section 5, 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
The 2011 amendment, in paragraph (1), deleted "any" preceding "one time"; inserted a new paragraph (2); redesignated former paragraphs (2) to (10) as paragraphs (3) to (11); in paragraph (8), added the second sentence; in paragraph (10), inserted ", retailer," following "conducted by the manufacturer", inserted "or retailer" following "agent of the manufacturer", substituted "an employee of a wholesaler, or an agent of a wholesaler" for "retailer, or employee of a wholesaler or retailer"; and added paragraphs (12) and (13).
2017 Act No. 62, Section 3, added (14) and (15), relating to mixers.
2021 Act No. 60, Section 5, in the first undesignated paragraph, substituted "sixteen and one-half percent" for "sixteen percent".
Subarticle 11
Regulation of Manufacturers and Micro-Distilleries