SENATE BILL REPORT

EHB 1563

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Brief Summary of Bill

Adds certain on campus and field trip alcohol tastings to those eligible to receive the special permit from the Liquor and Cannabis Board that authorizes the tasting of alcoholic beverages by underage students enrolled in specified culinary or alcoholic beverage technology classes.
Allows domestic winery licensees to allow qualified intern volunteers to engage in wine-production work.

Background: The Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) may issue a special permit to a community or technical college, a regional university, or state university to allow certain students to lawfully taste alcohol. To qualify, students must be at least eighteen years old and enrolled in a class that is part of a culinary, wine technology, beer technology, or spirituous technology-related degree program. The issuance of the permit requires that the following criteria be met:

the permit applicant must be a qualifying community or technical college student;
the alcohol is tasted, but not consumed by the student;
the tasting of the alcohol is for the purpose of educational training as part of the class curriculum and is approved by the educational provider;
the service and tasting of alcoholic beverages is supervised by a faculty or staff member who is twenty-one years of age or older and who possesses a class 12 or 13 alcohol server permit; and
an enrolled student allowed to taste an alcoholic beverage is not permitted to purchase the alcoholic beverage.

LCB must waive any otherwise applicable permit fees.

Summary of Bill: The events under which eligible community or technical colleges may receive the LCB special permit, allowing the tasting of alcohol by underage students enrolled in specified culinary or alcoholic beverage technology classes, is expanded to include tastings that occur on (1) the premises of the college or university at which the student is enrolled and (2) field trips to grape-growing areas or production facilities. Students must be accompanied by a faculty or staff member who is twenty-one years of age or older and who possesses a class 12 or 13 alcohol server permit.

Domestic winery licensees are permitted to allow student interns, between the ages of eighteen to twenty-one, to engage in wine-production work that takes place on the domestic winery's premises. The student intern must be enrolled (1) in a required or elective class that is part of a culinary, sommelier, wine business, enology, viticulture, wine, technology, beer technology, or spirituous technology-related degree program; and (2) at a community or technical college, regional university, or state university with a special permit.

Licensees are solely responsible for any student intern violation that occurs on the domestic winery's premises.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony: PRO: The bill contains parameters that requires a person who is licensed to supervise the students to ensure they are tasting and spitting the wine out. The supervisors are usually the students' professors. Without these provisions a three year delay in the workforce for students who want to begin their training between ages eighteen to twenty. We have several higher educational institutions that offer the classes to give these students the skills necessary to work in the wine industry, including winery management skills. Ninety percent of the students who have graduated from our programs and entered the wine industry are still employed in the industry. An instructor can describe a wine all they want, but until the students can taste the wine they cannot detect defects in the flavor or tell the difference between high and low acidic wines.