BYOB? New Maryland Alcohol Law Could Hurt Local Wineries

Governor Larry Hogan signed House Bill 733 to be effective July 1, 2016.  The bill had two main purposes.  First, to allow businesses with more than one alcohol licenses at the same premises to sell products from both licenses at the same location.  In other words, if a brewery also held a winery license and made wine at that location, they could provide tastings of their beer and their wine from the same tasting room.  Second, the bill allows those with a farm brewery license to hold multi-brewery events (beer festivals and tap take-overs) on-site. 

​But, the bill also eliminated several provisions that prohibited a licensee from selling "or allowing to be consumed at the licensed premises any product other than products produced by the license holder under the authority of this section.” 
​In other words, a winery or brewery can now sell products of other wineries or breweries.  That sounds fine, but it's the "consumption" part of the eliminated language that is troubling.   

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Because most wineries (and some breweries) tend to be in very scenic locations, it is common for them to hold festivals in which people come and bring picnic lunches, listen to music, and often buy a bottle of the winery's product to drink on-site.  Under the previous version of the law, the winery could not legally permit patrons to bring their own wine (from another winery) to drink during these events.  Repeal of the section above appears to eliminate this prohibition.  This could have a significant impact on local wineries, who spend a lot of time, effort, and money to promote these events.  Every outside bottle of wine brought onto their property represents a lost sale of their products.