Power to the People!

OK, maybe the wine lovers are not crying for revolution as if they were 18th century French peasants. But David McWherter (right) has found his own Marie Antoinette in the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB).

The PLCB is the only entity allowed to sell wine in Pennsylvania. If you want to buy or sell wine in that state, you must go through them. You cannot buy wine from out of state retailers, because they cannot legally ship wine into the state. The state justifies this with the standard group of arguments about taxing alcohol and controlling and dangerous substance. But they also claim the monopoly results in better prices and selection than the free market would.

McWherter, a blogger and wine enthusiast from Penn, has written a great post about how he used WineZap to illuminate pricing and availability at the PLCB. Although he uses a small sample, he highlights that PLCB prices tend to be higher than wines generally available at retailers across the country. He also realizes that many of the wines can't even be found at his local PLCB shop.