Tony Crowder is a man with discriminating tastes when it comes to whiskey and often finds himself at distilleries in towns he visits. It’s difficult to pack multiple bottles in a suitcase with weight limits on planes and fear of breakage. The solution is simple: Have it shipped to his home in the small town of Ripley, Tennessee.
But he can’t. Liquor laws in the Volunteer State prohibit the shipment of distilled spirits from other states into Tennessee.
The law goes back to Prohibition and the 18th Amendment, which banned the sale and transportation of alcohol nationwide. Passage of the 21st Amendment in 1933 reversed the ban on alcohol, and Tennessee became the 19th state to ratify it. Four years later, Tennessee repealed its ban on the manufacture of alcohol but continues to ban the sale of spirits from other states to homes in the state.
Frustrated with the inability to have whiskey shipped to his West Tennessee home, Crowder has started a petition on change.org that he hopes will bring about change.
“The only way I’m able to get them is to have them shipped to a state that allows direct shipment of spirits,” he says. “I do have a friend with a residence in Kentucky, and I’m able to have him obtain them for me. But then I have to drive to Kentucky to get them and that is a burden on both him and me.”
A firefighter, critical care paramedic and whiskey lover, Crowder has a collection of whiskeys from around the globe, a hobby he’s been pursuing for the last year. The journey has taught him much about the spirited world of whiskeys, bourbons, scotches and single malts created in not just Tennessee, but around America, he says.
Christina Martin, a spokesperson at change.org, says people use the petition platform to influence their local elected officials and key decision-makers in their communities.
Crowder is a constituent of State Rep. Chris Hurt.
“I’m always interested in hearing thoughts and concerns from constituents and carrying those topics to Nashville,” Hurt says. “As far as the chances of getting a new law on the books, it would depend on the direction of our discussion, and if we could get support from the General Assembly and the governor in order to address the concerns brought by the petition.”
Crowder realizes this may be an uphill battle.
Tennessee levies a tax on every gallon of alcohol sold. And that adds up. According to taxpolicycenter.org, states with the highest share of general revenue from alcohol were Tennessee at 0.7%, and Alabama and North Carolina, both 0.6%. Money from taxes on alcohol sales goes into Tennessee’s general fund to help pay for roads, health and social services, education and other programs.
As written in his petition, Crowder believes that a change in the law will have a twofold benefit. It will provide consumers access to a broader range of spirits, while providing economic benefits to the state.
According to the Distilled Spirits Council, the industry contributed $8.6 billion to Tennessee’s economy in 2018, and that figure is rising as interest in boutique and other distilleries grows. In 2023, more than 2.5 million people visited the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, and more than 8 million people visited the Tennessee Whiskey Trail, making it one of the top-visited tourist attractions in the state.
Lee Kennedy owns Leiper’s Fork Distillery, an artisan distillery that produces small-batch whiskeys in Williamson County. He says he will support the petition if it includes Tennessee distillers and allows them to do the same.
“Tennessee distillers are already operating under strict laws regarding the relationship between wholesalers and producers,” Kennedy says. “These laws are very much in the favor of the wholesalers. I think any law that allows consumers to expand their capability to explore small-producing brands is a good thing. It helps the little guys.”
Currently, Tennessee distilleries are allowed to ship to some other states, but there aren’t many, Kennedy says.
“Shipping is a great help in exposing more consumers to our brand, especially in an environment where wholesalers do not seem to be interested in expanding their portfolios to include small-batch distilleries,” he says. “Small grain-to-glass brands find it increasingly difficult to gain the attention of wholesalers who tend to gravitate to the large corporate legacy brands and new non-producing brands backed by institutional equity. Shipping direct to consumers is a way of helping us level the playing field.”
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission did not return calls and emails seeking information. Multiple liquor retailers declined to comment as did a representative for the Tennessee Wine and Spirits Association.
Neeley Family Distillery in Sparta, Kentucky, is in its 11th generation of bourbon makers, but it took this generation to make whiskey production legal after the previous 10 generations bootlegged in the Kentucky mountains.
Rebekah Neeley, director of operations and single barrel coordinator at the family distillery, says the distillery gets a lot of business from Tennesseans who stop by for tastings and tours. But when they ask to have their favorite bourbons shipped home, they’re disappointed.
“They’re mostly confused about why it’s not legal,” she says. “We have a sign on our door that states we cannot ship to Tennessee, so I believe that stops a lot of people from asking while in the distillery. But we have dozens of calls every month asking if we can ship to their homes. Tennessee loves bourbon from Kentucky, so I know they would love to get it delivered to their doorstep.”
There are currently less than 500 signatures on the petition at change.org/TNSpirits, and Crowder hopes to get at least 2,000 signatures before presenting it to Hurt.
— Anne Braly, Tennessee Lookout, November 13, 2024
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