Wine distributors, most legislators, many regulators and many others in the wine industry have demonstrated they have little or no care for the rights or desires of wine consumers. In state after state, laws have been passed that don't merely affect the rights of wine retailers to ship into those states, but essentially prevent wine lovers from procuring the wines they want to buy. If you are a wine lover and if you care about responsive government, equitable laws, a broken and corrupted system of regulating wine or simply about obtaining the wines you want, then you should care about the SWRA.

No other organization in America has demonstrated a willingness to fight consistently on your behalf when it comes to legal access to wine. When the state of Illinois passed a new law in summer 2007 that prohibited Illinois wine lovers from purchasing wine from out-of-state retailers in the way they had been able to for 15 years, only the SWRA opposed it. SWRA helped rally hundreds of Illinois wine consumers in opposition to the law. Yet despite this only a handful of Illinois legislators, no winery organizations, no wholesalers and only one in-state retailer opposed the law.

Even in the wake of the groundbreaking 2005 Granholm v. Heald Supreme Court decision that spoke to the need to make state wine laws fair for in-state and out-of-state shippers, there remain powerful, well-monied forces that are working hard to prevent consumers from obtaining the wines they desire. SWRA is urging wine lovers to stay informed, stay engaged and make your voice heard. We are here to help you do that.