Update on Our Proposed Legislation

In our proposed legislation, the 3-tier system is still in place. As of 2008, wineries distribute their own wine as contracted employees of the Virginia Winery Distribution Company. So they essentially self distribute, but they only have to pay a $5 fee for each transaction using a special database. No 27% to 35% markup on each keg. Utilizing the same setup with the Virginia Winery Distribution Company, we could rename it to the Virginia Wine and Craft Brewery Distribution Company. 

This means that small breweries like ourselves, would sell kegs for what they are worth minus a few bucks! So BadWolf could still have our wholesaler drive our kegs to their far away destinations but we could also have a choice to deliver our own kegs to the restaurant down the street, and charge almost full price for the keg.

As we discussed in our letter, this would help small breweries get off the ground and since wholesalers have a great network of places to distribute beer, small breweries who eventually scale up could take advantage of their services. But in the meantime, this legislation helps out the small guys like us.

All we need to do is have a few breweries back us up and get the draft legislation in place. We need this soon! The VA Brewer's Guild is aware of the idea and apparently some breweries are already working on legislation. We have contacted those breweries and we are now working together to see if we can get the legislation passed by next year!!!