Showing posts with label wine laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine laws. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Iowa Winemaker Fights City Hall


We've all heard the old axiom: "You can't fight city hall."  An Iowa winemaker is finding that you can fight them, it's just not easy.

Schade Creek Vineyard - it's pronounced "shady" - is six acres of vines in the small town of Waukee, Iowa.  Kurt Schade was happy growing grapes and selling them to other winemakers, but he longed for something more.  In 2007, Schade decided to build a winery and tasting room, make his own wine and sell it to thirsty locals and tourists right there on the property.

The land was zoned for agricultural use, but Schade did his homework and discovered that in Waukee's city limits, a class A winery did not require the approval of the local government.  He's a guy who likes to do things right, though, so Schade approached the city staff and told them what he had learned.  The city officials gave him their blessing to create a destination winery that would bring new tax dollars and, likely, new tourist dollars into the commuter community only a few miles from Des Moines.

Schade tells me "most folks in Waukee drive to work and spend the bulk of their expendable income in Des Moines, so a winery in Waukee seemed like a great idea - good for me, good for the public and good for the city."

Jana and Kurt Schade
He put a lot of his own hard-earned money into creating a new building from the ground up and making the necessary upgrades to the facility - as requested by the city -  to provide the public with an up-to-code tasting room to visit.  He even went to the state capitol to make sure everything was on the up-and-up, and government officials there told him he was within the scope of the law and should proceed with his plans.  In 2008, he started making his own wines and began applying for permits to open the tasting room early in 2009.  Things began to go south in May of that year.

"That's when the city told me they felt they had jurisdiction in the case after all,” Shade says.  “There's a street which ends at my property, and when the city wanted to extend it they would have to build a multi-million dollar bridge.  They wanted to take part of my land - and vines - and they wanted me to sign a letter saying that I agreed to letting them assess me as they saw fit, no matter what the cost."

The city of Waukee wanted to take Schade's land from him - it's called eminent domain - and they wanted him to help pay for the street extension.  "When I started the whole process, I knew there was a possibility that the city might someday want to extend that street through my property.  So I built a berm through that area along the right-of-way, to allow for that.  I never thought their demands would be so unreasonable.  The street will not enhance my property, it will probably detract from it.  I like my community and I'm pro-growth, but if I had known they would claim jurisdiction and make these demands on me, I would have considered selling the property and buying land elsewhere before sinking my life savings into the winery."

Schade Creek Vineyard and Winery
Schade feels he should be compensated for the land and the vines that will be lost to the construction - and that he shouldn't have to foot the bill for said construction.  Since hitting this impasse with the city, his tasting room - which opened last year - has been shut down, killing his retail business.  He's still making wine, but has to do his best to sell it wholesale, which is not something he is set up to do.  "A member of the city council - Mike Watts - was abusing his power and sending the police over to my place whenever a few cars are on the property.  It has gotten very personal."

The city says he should have assumed that these conditions could occur, even though they gave him the green light to build the winery.  So far, Schade has been unsuccessful in reversing the city council's decision, even though locals and other winemakers have come to public meetings to speak on his behalf.

“Waukee's mayor Bill Peard is definitely part of the opposition,” says Schade.  "I worked with the city every step of the way and they waited until I requested the occupancy permit to drop this news on me.  I thought a winery and tasting room with a pond and a fountain and a pretty vineyard would be an attraction the city would want to have around.  No other class A native winery in Iowa has received the opposition we have."

Schade Creek Winery submitted four wines to the Midwest Competition in 2012, in which they competed with wineries from 16 states.  All of the Schade Creek wines were medal recipients - in fact, they were one of only two wineries in Iowa to receive two Gold medals.  One of their wines - Harlan Henry,a wine made from Noiret grapes and named after Kurt’s Dad - received a Chariman’s nomination, meaning it was one of the top 20 wines of the competition.  I wrote about some of the Schade Creek wines in the Now And Zin Wine Country series.

Schade says he now has to decide whether to stop making wine he can't sell, or sell it in bulk to other wineries.  The intervention of a state agency might help, but Schade isn't holding his breath.

"The wine industry in Iowa is still in its infancy," says Schade, "and the state's wine organizations say they're sorry, but they just don't have the money to help fight the fight.   I'm left wishing I had built the winery in a community that would embrace it."


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Like Schade Creek on Facebook


Sunday, October 16, 2011

WINE ACTIVISM


Wine Activism

In the United States, after Prohibition was repealed, the burden of legislating the sale of alcoholic beverages fell to the individual states.  This resulted in about as many different sets of beaurocratic red tape as there were states.  In today's global economy, wine drinkers have wine from all over the world available to them by way of the internet.  Available, that is, if the state in which the wine lover lives permits direct shipment of alcoholic beverages to its citizens.

Today, some American states still saddle their populace with antiquated laws concerning the shipment of wine and other beverages - laws that were put on the books as early as the 1930s and, in many cases,  have not been changed or updated since.

These legal antiquities are largely still in effect due to what's known as the Three Tier System of alcoholic beverage control.  The three tiers are producers, distributors and retailers.  Opponents of the three tier system note that consumers are not one of the three tiers, and therefore their needs are not met by this system.

It is argued - convincingly - that the model serves only to line the pockets of those who distribute wine from the producers to the retailers.  Many interested observers say there is no need for this type of middleman - that consumers should be able to buy wine
and have it shipped to them directly, the way they buy any other legal product.

Activism among wine lovers has grown rapidly in an effort to get outdated legislation changed so wine lovers across the country can order and receive any wine they choose.

Pay a visit to your local wine store, and you are likely to see flyers for organizations like Free The Grapes, which are urging the public to take action with messages to legislators supporting more freedom for wine buyers.

The American Wine Consumer Coalition, started by wine blogger Tom Wark, seeks to give a voice to wine drinkers who are upset with the disregard their state governments exhibit toward their freedom to choose.  The non-profit AWCC has a Facebook page you can "like" to show your support.

A number of campaigns have also been launched over the last couple of years to combat different U.S. House bills which seek to support the Three Tier System.

However you choose to get involved, it's clear that a time of action has come, and wine drinkers from all 50 states are jumping into the fray to claim the rights which should be theirs as citizens of the U.S.



Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter