Free wine for bloggers

A hot tip from my good buddy The Great Beast: Mankas Hills Vineyards is offering to send a free bottle of 2004 Amelie Cabernet Sauvignon - Merlot to any U.S. resident with a blog.

Click to read full offer details.

I'm going to write in for my bottle.

Comments

[The Continental Op]

Cabernet-Merlot is far from my favorite. But free is free, and certainly worth a try. Thanks for the tip.

[Bruce]

This sounds great - except that it's a jailable offense in my state (Maryland) for us to accept the shipment or for them to send it, unless they move it through the state's licensed distribution network. While the law does not discriminate against out-of-state wineries anymore (recent USSC opinion), Maryland still bars all direct shipments to consumers from all vintners. There was talk of a limited exception for small wineries to ship to restaurants without going through licensed wholesalers first, but I don't know if that went through.

Conclusion: Maryland bloggers beware.

[Chris]

But they don't ship to NY State, do they?

[Trystero]

There was a story on NPR yesterday about how the War on Liquids was hurting small vineyards in california. Evidently they do a great deal of business with people who fly in for "wine country" tours and buy a couple of bottles to take home with them. The tourists don't want to pack their wine in checked luggage because, as one put it, they'd wind up with either some very drunk baggage screeners/handlers, or a bag full of broken glass and very wet clothes.

[Scott Lemieux]

If only they were shipping to New York, dammit...

[GerwingR]

LB if you send in for one, send them two stainless steel thermous bottles; the large kind. You can expect two weeks for shipping and handling.
When you recieve it tell them to forward your returned stainless steel thermous flasks to the next recipient.
ilovewine1.yahoo.com
ilovewine2.yahoo.com
ilovewine3.yahoo.com
ilovewine4.yahoo.com
ilovewine5.yahoo.com and so on
Of course the ilovewineX is at blogspot.com Gonzalis Godzillia
now it is my birthday. rtg.
PS. i"ll pay for the flasks !

[GerwingR]

Give N.Y.'s poor what they need most: a voice

By BRUCE ACKERMAN and IAN AYRES
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/443223p-373304c.html
Next month, the Mayor's Commission on Economic Opportunity will release a strategy to reduce poverty in New York City. This is the first in an occasional series of outside-the-box recommendations to the group.
Now, here is something to get all juiced up about.

[Thom]

Wow. Thanks. Makes a little blog worthwhile.

[The Phantom]

Hey NY addresses are not eligible. But I thought NY had legalized shipments of wine to the consumer as the result of a court decision?

Maybe NY makes you jump through so many (protectionist) hoops in typical fashion that this winemaker decided it was not worth the trouble.

[Seattle Man]

As to security...should there be any concerns about giving unknown parties -- like this winery -- one's name, address and date of birth?

Recently I (very foolishly) put some outgoing "bills paid" in my mail box. Visible. Likely with checks inside. They were stolen and bank advised me to change account numbers etc etc. So I have gotten just a bit more concerned about security. I know that DOB and check numbers are not quite the same issue but they are related in that both offer a "hook" for identity thieves to latch onto. I know it is bad practice to give out Social Security numbers.

Btw, I am not at all casting aspersions on this winery. They are no doubt totally on the up-and-up and giving away bottles of wine for confidential info strikes me as very inefficient. It's just general "best practice" which interests me.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

A little background on this offer. I learned about it through a tip from my friend Tim, who's active in the wine industry. Tim would never pass on an offer from a business that he considered in any way dodgy.

Ordinarily, I probably wouldn't consider sending away for a free bottle of wine from anyone, because I wouldn't be confident that it would be any good--but on Tim's advice, I'm willing to take the risk.

[ahem]

There was a story on NPR yesterday about how the War on Liquids was hurting small vineyards in california.

Even before that, having to deal with 49 other state laws on alcohol sales often meant that it was easier for a small-scale wine producer in California to ship most of its output to another country than try to ensure nationwide distribution. Which was a benefit for people who shop at Oddbins in the UK, but not for Americans wanting to drink US-made wine.

[Zachary Drake]

Just a note: I got my bottle of wine from this offer today. I haven't tried it yet.

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

I got a nice note from the Mankas Hills winery folks saying that they'd agreed to send me my bottle.

Apparently, it's legal to send a gift of wine through the mail, just not to sell wine and ship it across state lines.