BILL REQ. #:  H-3647.3 

Prefiled 01/08/10. Read first time 01/11/10.   Referred to Committee on Commerce & Labor.

     AN ACT Relating to wine tasting at farmers markets; amending RCW 66.24.170 and 66.28.040; creating a new section; and providing an expiration date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The liquor control board shall establish a pilot project as provided in this section to allow wine tasting at farmers markets.
     (2) The pilot project shall consist of ten farmers markets with at least six days of tastings to be conducted by one or two wineries at each farmers market between July 1, 2010, and September 30, 2011. The pilot project farmers markets shall be selected by the liquor control board in consultation with statewide organizations of farmers markets. The board shall make an effort to select farmers markets throughout the entire state.
     (3) Farmers markets chosen to participate in the pilot project must be authorized on January 1, 2010, to allow wineries to sell bottled wine at retail under RCW 66.24.170. A winery offering samples under this section must have an endorsement on January 1, 2010, from the liquor control board to sell wine of its own production at a farmers market under RCW 66.24.170.
     (4) Samples may be offered only under the following conditions:
     (a) Each sample must be two ounces or less, up to a total of four ounces per customer per day. A winery may provide only one sample of any single brand and type of wine to a customer per day. If two wineries offer samples at a farmers market on a tasting day, a winery may provide only a total of two ounces of wine per customer per day.
     (b) A winery may advertise that it offers samples only at the winery's booth, stall, or other designated location at the farmers market.
     (c) Customers must remain at the winery's booth, stall, or other designated location while sampling wine.
     (d) Winery licensees and employees who are involved in sampling activities under this section must hold a class 12 or class 13 alcohol server permit.
     (5) The liquor control board may establish additional requirements by rule to ensure that persons under twenty-one years of age and apparently intoxicated persons cannot possess or consume alcohol under the authority granted in this section.
     (6) The liquor control board may prohibit sampling at a farmers market that is within the boundaries of an alcohol impact area recognized by resolution of the board if the board finds that the sampling activities at the farmers market are having an adverse effect on the reduction of chronic public inebriation in the area.
     (7) The liquor control board shall report on the pilot project to the appropriate committees of the legislature by December 1, 2011.

Sec. 2   RCW 66.24.170 and 2009 c 373 s 4 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) There shall be a license for domestic wineries; fee to be computed only on the liters manufactured: Less than two hundred fifty thousand liters per year, one hundred dollars per year; and two hundred fifty thousand liters or more per year, four hundred dollars per year.
     (2) The license allows for the manufacture of wine in Washington state from grapes or other agricultural products.
     (3) Any domestic winery licensed under this section may also act as a retailer of wine of its own production. Any domestic winery licensed under this section may act as a distributor of its own production. Notwithstanding any language in this title to the contrary, a domestic winery may use a common carrier to deliver up to one hundred cases of its own production, in the aggregate, per month to licensed Washington retailers. A domestic winery may not arrange for any such common carrier shipments to licensed retailers of wine not of its own production. Except as provided in this section, any winery operating as a distributor and/or retailer under this subsection shall comply with the applicable laws and rules relating to distributors and/or retailers, except that a winery operating as a distributor may maintain a warehouse off the premises of the winery for the distribution of wine of its own production provided that: (a) The warehouse has been approved by the board under RCW 66.24.010; and (b) the number of warehouses off the premises of the winery does not exceed one.
     (4) A domestic winery licensed under this section, at locations separate from any of its production or manufacturing sites, may serve samples of its own products, with or without charge, and sell wine of its own production at retail, provided that: (a) Each additional location has been approved by the board under RCW 66.24.010; (b) the total number of additional locations does not exceed two; (c) a winery may not act as a distributor at any such additional location; and (d) any person selling or serving wine at an additional location for on-premise consumption must obtain a class 12 or class 13 alcohol server permit. Each additional location is deemed to be part of the winery license for the purpose of this title. At additional locations operated by multiple wineries under this section, if the board cannot connect a violation of RCW 66.44.200 or 66.44.270 to a single licensee, the board may hold all licensees operating the additional location jointly liable. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to prevent a domestic winery from holding multiple domestic winery licenses.
     (5)(a) A domestic winery licensed under this section may apply to the board for an endorsement to sell wine of its own production at retail for off-premises consumption at a qualifying farmers market. The annual fee for this endorsement is seventy-five dollars. An endorsement issued pursuant to this subsection does not count toward the two additional retail locations limit specified in this section.
     (b) For each month during which a domestic winery will sell wine at a qualifying farmers market, the winery must provide the board or its designee a list of the dates, times, and locations at which bottled wine may be offered for sale. This list must be received by the board before the winery may offer wine for sale at a qualifying farmers market.
     (c) The wine sold at qualifying farmers markets must be made entirely from grapes grown in a recognized Washington appellation or from other agricultural products grown in this state.
     (d) Each approved location in a qualifying farmers market is deemed to be part of the winery license for the purpose of this title. Except as provided in section 1 of this act, the approved locations under an endorsement granted under this subsection do not include the tasting or sampling privilege of a winery. The winery may not store wine at a farmers market beyond the hours that the winery offers bottled wine for sale. The winery may not act as a distributor from a farmers market location.
     (e) Before a winery may sell bottled wine at a qualifying farmers market, the farmers market must apply to the board for authorization for any winery with an endorsement approved under this subsection to sell bottled wine at retail at the farmers market. This application shall include, at a minimum: (i) A map of the farmers market showing all booths, stalls, or other designated locations at which an approved winery may sell bottled wine; and (ii) the name and contact information for the on-site market managers who may be contacted by the board or its designee to verify the locations at which bottled wine may be sold. Before authorizing a qualifying farmers market to allow an approved winery to sell bottled wine at retail at its farmers market location, the board shall notify the persons or entities of such application for authorization pursuant to RCW 66.24.010 (8) and (9). An authorization granted under this subsection (5)(e) may be withdrawn by the board for any violation of this title or any rules adopted under this title.
     (f) The board may adopt rules establishing the application and approval process under this section and such additional rules as may be necessary to implement this section.
     (g) For the purposes of this subsection:
     (i) "Qualifying farmers market" means an entity that sponsors a regular assembly of vendors at a defined location for the purpose of promoting the sale of agricultural products grown or produced in this state directly to the consumer under conditions that meet the following minimum requirements:
     (A) There are at least five participating vendors who are farmers selling their own agricultural products;
     (B) The total combined gross annual sales of vendors who are farmers exceeds the total combined gross annual sales of vendors who are processors or resellers;
     (C) The total combined gross annual sales of vendors who are farmers, processors, or resellers exceeds the total combined gross annual sales of vendors who are not farmers, processors, or resellers;
     (D) The sale of imported items and secondhand items by any vendor is prohibited; and
     (E) No vendor is a franchisee.
     (ii) "Farmer" means a natural person who sells, with or without processing, agricultural products that he or she raises on land he or she owns or leases in this state or in another state's county that borders this state.
     (iii) "Processor" means a natural person who sells processed food that he or she has personally prepared on land he or she owns or leases in this state or in another state's county that borders this state.
     (iv) "Reseller" means a natural person who buys agricultural products from a farmer and resells the products directly to the consumer.
     (6) Wine produced in Washington state by a domestic winery licensee may be shipped out-of-state for the purpose of making it into sparkling wine and then returned to such licensee for resale. Such wine shall be deemed wine manufactured in the state of Washington for the purposes of RCW 66.24.206, and shall not require a special license.

Sec. 3   RCW 66.28.040 and 2009 c 373 s 8 are each amended to read as follows:
     Except as permitted by the board under RCW 66.20.010, no domestic brewery, microbrewery, distributor, distiller, domestic winery, importer, rectifier, certificate of approval holder, or other manufacturer of liquor shall, within the state of Washington, give to any person any liquor; but nothing in this section nor in RCW 66.28.010 shall prevent a domestic brewery, microbrewery, distributor, domestic winery, distiller, certificate of approval holder, or importer from furnishing samples of beer, wine, or spirituous liquor to authorized licensees for the purpose of negotiating a sale, in accordance with regulations adopted by the liquor control board, provided that the samples are subject to taxes imposed by RCW 66.24.290 and 66.24.210, and in the case of spirituous liquor, any product used for samples must be purchased at retail from the board; nothing in this section shall prevent the furnishing of samples of liquor to the board for the purpose of negotiating the sale of liquor to the state liquor control board; nothing in this section shall prevent a domestic brewery, microbrewery, domestic winery, distillery, certificate of approval holder, or distributor from furnishing beer, wine, or spirituous liquor for instructional purposes under RCW 66.28.150; nothing in this section shall prevent a domestic winery, certificate of approval holder, or distributor from furnishing wine without charge, subject to the taxes imposed by RCW 66.24.210, to a not-for-profit group organized and operated solely for the purpose of enology or the study of viticulture which has been in existence for at least six months and that uses wine so furnished solely for such educational purposes or a domestic winery, or an out-of-state certificate of approval holder, from furnishing wine without charge or a domestic brewery, or an out-of-state certificate of approval holder, from furnishing beer without charge, subject to the taxes imposed by RCW 66.24.210 or 66.24.290, or a domestic distiller licensed under RCW 66.24.140 or an accredited representative of a distiller, manufacturer, importer, or distributor of spirituous liquor licensed under RCW 66.24.310, from furnishing spirits without charge, to a nonprofit charitable corporation or association exempt from taxation under section 501(c)(3) or (6) of the internal revenue code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. Sec. 501(c)(3) or (6)) for use consistent with the purpose or purposes entitling it to such exemption; nothing in this section shall prevent a domestic brewery or microbrewery from serving beer without charge, on the brewery premises; nothing in this section shall prevent donations of wine for the purposes of RCW 66.12.180; nothing in this section shall prevent a domestic winery from serving wine without charge, on the winery premises; ((and)) nothing in this section shall prevent a craft distillery from serving spirits without charge, on the distillery premises subject to RCW 66.24.145; and nothing in this section shall prevent a winery from serving samples at a farmers market under section 1 of this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   This act expires December 1, 2011.