by Michele Slott, Prairie Berry Winery

If you are just starting to blossom as a wine lover and thinking about traveling to other areas to do some tasting, be sure to plan ahead about getting your purchase(s) home. You wouldn’t think that getting something from point A to point B could be a big frustration, but it’s important to remember that alcohol is a highly regulated commodity. Following is just an illustration of what CAN happen. Thinking ahead can prevent it from happening to you.

Okay, now pretend you’re on a trip, meeting some friends in Napa Valley, California. Your friends are a couple who had just recently moved to Salt Lake City, and after you all spend a few days enjoying wine country and San Francisco, you’re going to finish out the vacation week at their new home in Utah, then return to South Dakota. At one tasting room you find a wine you both particularly enjoy and want to take home to commemorate the occasion. But wait, there’s a discount if you buy a case… And then you can enjoy it for longer, so what the heck? You’re on vacation! Then you start talking to the staff about shipping it back to your home states… What? Your friends can’t ship to Utah because it’s against Utah state law. You, on the other hand, being from South Dakota, have no problem shipping it home.*

Okay, change of plans… So, you ship a case home to South Dakota and your friends decide they will buy just a few bottles and stash them in their bags. They make the purchase, take the bottles back to the hotel and wrap them carefully in clothing to prevent breakage and zip the suitcases shut. Just as on the trip out, they plan to take their bags as carry-on to avoid the checked baggage fees, the possibility of losing belongings, and having to deal with waiting at the baggage carousel. As you all stand at security chatting, waiting to put your bags on the scanner, you see someone ahead of you pulling wine bottles out of their own bag and chucking them in the garbage. Suddenly you remember — wine is a liquid. Bottles of liquids larger than 3 oz. are not allowed in carry-on baggage. What were you thinking? Well, of course, you were all on vacation and weren’t really thinking… Sadly, your friends chuck their vino too. The security guard gives you a sad smile and says, “Thanks.” You assume it’s for not making a stink about throwing wine/money away… But you figure you should have known better, and he’s just doing his job.

As you get your shoes back on and grab your bags to head to your gate, you see a gift store with an espresso bar down the way. It’s not too busy and you’ve got time to kill (and you’re feeling kind of lousy about tossing the wine), so you offer to buy your friends a grande anything to lift their spirits. As you’re waiting for the Barista to make your beverages, you look around and your gaze falls on a display of local wines, including the same variety your friends had just thrown in the garbage a few yards back at security. Choking on your tongue, you ask the Barista what she knows about getting the wine on the plane.

“Oh yeah, if you buy it AFTER you’ve gone through security, you can take it as carry-on. If you buy it BEFORE going through security, you have to send it through checked baggage.”

Yes, it’s true — so be forewarned as you travel. There are over 10,000 rules and laws governing whether or not wine can be shipped directly to someone — each state has it’s own ruling on things (counties and municipalities weigh in on it, too, in some places), and the laws are ever-changing. For instance,

• Some states have expensive permits wineries must purchase,
• Some require taxes to be filed and paid monthly, quarterly or yearly,
• Some require every wine label to be registered with that state
• Some just say “no” while others say “no problem.”

One winery may opt to not ship to a certain state just because it’s too big of a headache, while another winery down the road is willing to deal with those problems. And of course, shipping and handling is an additional expense to the consumer, too.

If you live in a “no-ship” state, remember what the Barista said: wine CAN be taken on aircraft, but only as checked baggage if purchased prior to going through security. It can be taken as carry-on if it is purchased AFTER going through security. Many airports do not have shops past security with wine for sale by the bottle, yet, but the number is growing (although it does generally make the wine more expensive).

If you’re travelling by car, then you’re only limited by your space — unless you’re going to Canada, in which case you are allowed to bring in no more than two 750 ml bottles per person.

DO go explore some other great wineries!
DO purchase wines you love (especially if you ask the staff and it’s a wine that’s not available anywhere except the winery itself) — it’s a great way to remember the trip and share with the people you love.
And more than anything DO plan ahead how much you can afford to purchase, and how you’re going to get it home. Don’t leave your vacation memories in the Security Screening garbage can!!!

* Note: If you live in SD and had been visiting a winery within your home state or tried to call and make a phone order, you’d be out of luck because South Dakota wineries cannot ship within the state of South Dakota as per state law, although out-of-state wineries CAN ship in so long as you are physically present at that winery to make the purchase. Oddly enough, in 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned laws for New York and Michigan that allowed in-state wineries to direct ship to citizens within these states, but made it illegal for out-of-state wineries to ship to those same people. The Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional for the states to treat in-state wineries differently from out-of-state wineries.  For more information go to:   http://www.freethegrapes.com/state_laws.html.

by Michele Slott

I got the pleasure of visiting Lewis & Clark Vineyard near Yankton this past weekend to shoot photos and video. Greg Stach was a proud papa, showing off the grapes he raises.

The nets cover all of the grapevines that still have maturing fruit. As Greg explained to me, small birds like robins, can be a real problem, making one little peck in each berry of the grape cluster, which can ruin the fruit for wine. Measures must be taken… Thus the nets. Turkeys for the most part, are a blessing — keeping the grasshopper population down. Although, true to their name, they can be “turkeys,” working together to get under the nets and get at any grapes hanging low enough to jump up, reach and eat. They eat the whole berry, though, without damaging what remains behind.

The nets are difficult to move, and come harvest time, Greg is ready to do some uncomfortable, if not necessarily heavy lifting, for HOURS at a time — as he lifts nets to allow picking of the grapes underneath.

“I do yoga and lots of stretching,” he says, to keep in shape for harvest.

The folks doing the picking tell him to “go faster” as he works his way down the row with his arms above his head holding the nets on either side.

A shot of a Frontenac grape cluster at Lewis & Clark Vineyard.

Not quite ready for wine yet, these Frontenac grapes get a closer look from Greg.

by Kim Flick

One of my guilty pleasures of traveling is to leave all previous comfort zones and try local - or at least different - flavors (food and drink!).  Recently, my family and I packed up and headed east.  We stayed with some relatives near the Chesapeake Bay.  Having spent some years there in my past, I decided to go to the largest beverage ‘warehouse’ in the area to find something to pair with the intended meal of the evening - a bushel of Maryland crabs.  I chose somewhat of an unconventional seafood pairing - a jammy Zinfandel by Toad Hollow.  I was very pleasantly surprised!  Not only was the wine itself robust and full bodied, it stood up wonderfully to the spicy Old Bay Seasoning in which the crabs were covered.  My hubby went with the more obvious choice of beer with crabs (where you dump them on newspaper in the middle of the table) and chose a mocha porter by Rogue (I think he still had chocolate on the brain from our trip to Hershey, PA the previous day) which also seemed to pair well.  Maybe it was the fact that we were on vacation, so everything was tasting especially good?  No, I’ve also had the unfortunate experience of being disappointed by my selections.  BUT, you never know what sort of gem you will discover (then cross your fingers that you can find it once you get home!) to make it worth the chance!