THE UNINTENDED DOWNSTREAM
The Journey
We closed on our house and moved to Maine effective December 5, 2024! For my husband, it was a welcome home of sorts, as he had spent nearly two decades adventuring around the country with longer stops in Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. For me, it was a brand new journey after 25+ years in San Francisco. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but we spent most of 2024 aggressively looking at properties, communities, culture - all so that we could ensure a quality fit and a true “sense of place” that would feel like home. We landed in Yarmouth. Truly, the first two weeks upon arriving, a neighbor brought us fresh baked blueberry muffins, two other neighbors had come by, and the realtor who sold the house had introduced us to another gay couple down the road - as a way of letting us know we were not alone.
There are VERY few states in this country where I feel it is safe to move my family. Very few states I would choose to call home. Very few states that I would feel that moving from California and San Francisco would be worth it — Maine was that state. I was excited to start this new chapter. The area had everything that I had required in order to say “yes” — amazing coastal experiences, friendly people, good food and wine, and a location that was climate resilient for what lies ahead as we both age.
The Impact
Fast forward to early summer when I had placed my usual wine club order from one of our wine clubs. I received a call from the winemaker - as it’s a small, family run vineyard/farm/winery in Sebastopol, California. He was alerting me that there was a change to Maine’s laws that now made it too difficult for small production vineyards to sell/ship direct to consumers living in the state. I was jaw dropped. I have known this family, that winery, and have been members there for almost 20 years. The fact that I was now not able to purchase wine from them due to a shift in a law in my new home state seemed almost alienating. We are a big wine family, having lived so close to Napa, Sonoma, etc. We spent years cultivating relationships with the small vineyards, the mom & pop places with some of the most amazing wines. The wines from the places we are members are not wines that distribute broadly, so the only way to procure their products is via their wine clubs, or as the industry calls it, DTC (direct to consumer).
Apparently, Maine worked on a revision to their existing “Bottle Bill” and in 2023, LD 1909 was passed. The update was to take effect July 1, 2025. Maine's Bottle Bill requirements expanded to include all direct-to-consumer wine shipments into the state. Out-of-state wineries engaging in DTC shipments must now register as Initiators of Deposit (IODs), label bottles with approved stickers showing the deposit value, track and remit deposits, coordinate with in-state commingling agents, and submit annual reports. This process is so complicated, forcing unique tracking systems on small wineries just for sales to Maine (no other states do this). There are fines in place that are levied per occurance if they were found to be in violation for some reason.
The well-intended revision had a massive downstream effect on ALL direct to consumer shipments coming into Maine. I did a random sampling of various large and small producers in California, Oregon, and Washington just to see what was happening (here is my random sample of 20 as of July 28, 2025). The result was SHOCKING to me. Not only were the small, mom & pop wineries refusing to ship - ALL wineries decided to completely cut Maine residents out of DTC shipments — ALL wineries!
DTC sales in Maine are not huge comparative to other states, but it does represent roughly 24,000 cases of wine (288,000 bottles) per year - which yields roughly $500,000 in tax revenue for the state. With the changes made, the State of Maine unintentionally cut-off $500,000 in revenue while seriously limited choice for its residents. Additionally, it unintentionally rewards the large, mega producers that can work through the IOD channels - these producers are usually lower in quality, lower in price, and less environmentally friendly in their operations.
So, I say… The Bottle Bill is corked…