BLAKE: I'll drink to these bills

By Peter Blake, Special to the Rocky

Published January 24, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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At 2:46 p.m. on Jan. 6, I bought a bottle of chardonnay at D'Vine Wine, 1660 Champa St., for $17.99 plus tax - and I still have the receipt to prove it.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it was to me. Jan. 6 was a Sunday, and I'd never bought a bottle on a Sunday before, thinking such sales were illegal.

And they are - unless you're buying from an outlet store owned by a winery. D'Vine makes wine on the premises and promotes its Sunday sales on the radio.

Laura Harris, the state's director of liquor enforcement, said the law exempting wineries from the Sunday ban was passed a decade ago in order to promote the nascent Colorado wine industry. But a couple of years ago the legislature eliminated the requirement that Colorado grapes be used in the wine.

There are about 60 wineries in Colorado and the law allows them to have five tasting rooms each. But Doug Caskey of the state's Wine Board said there may be only 12 to 15 outlets operating around the state. It's expensive to keep a store open.

Since there's no longer a nexus between Colorado agriculture and Sunday wine sales, it's time to eliminate either the winery exemption, or the blue law itself. Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, has opted for the latter. Her Senate Bill 82, now in the Business and Labor Committee, would allow the sale, "in sealed containers," of all "malt, vinous or spirituous liquors" seven days a week.

It's about time. Tourists and newcomers from more civilized states are shocked to find they can't buy bottled booze here in the Wild West on Sunday.

Such bills have been tried before. All have failed, most recently in 2005. The opposition has come not from preachers and prohibitionists but from the store owners themselves. They claimed it would cost too much to staff a store seven days a week.

Veiga believes her latest bill has a better chance. The big retailers are promoting it, as is the Korean Liquor Retailers Association, which fought the 2005 version. "It's a convenience issue" for our customers, says Jeff Lim, head of the group, whose members own many metro stores.

But a related bill, not yet introduced, faces a harder time. Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, would allow supermarkets to sell wine and full-strength beer, but not hard liquor.

Currently, groceries are allowed to sell only 3.2 beer, seven days a week, although each chain - Safeway, King Soopers, Target, etc. - is allowed to have one unit in the state that can sell all alcoholic beverages six days a week. Why? It's too weird to explain.

Convenience stores would not qualify under the Shaffer bill, which would limit wine and beer sales only to stores that do at least 51 percent of their business in food.

"It's going to be very hard for us" if the bill passes, said Lim. Most liquor stores are in shopping centers near supermarkets, and they see half their business disappearing.

Sean Duffy, a Safeway lobbyist, insists that the experience in other states shows that liquor stores can survive even when groceries offer wine and beer. That's because the groceries' limited shelf space will enable them to sell only a few popular brands.

The pending bill hasn't resolved some key questions, Shaffer concedes. For instance, would each grocery have to get its own wine and beer license, or could the chain get one license for all its stores? And if supermarkets can sell alcohol, why shouldn't liquor stores be allowed to sell food, which they cannot do now? That trade-off isn't part of the bill yet, but it should be. Liquor stores aren't going to offer you cold cereal and canned soup, but they would love to offer party trays and other deli services that go along with alcohol sales.

If these two bills pass, it would almost offset all the other bad things the legislature will do this session.

Peter Blake is a former Rocky Mountain News political columnist. He can be reached at pblake0705@comcast.net.

• January 25, 2008

  9:57 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Eagle5 writes:

  I hate to see anyone losing their jobs because of laws imposed by government; especially, mom and pop stores or small businesses. This also includes the BS about not smoking in casinos - hope the non-smokers get scalped by the casinos - I know this is occurring now but don't know if it's the law problem or just bad weather reduction of customers (the past has proven that casinos get "chicken" in the winter months when bad weather is around. Also, believe all casinos are cigar bars - go Wildcard!!!!!!

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