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As previous posters have mentioned, the American market is about choice. Throughout Europe. drinkers have a CHOICE. You can decide to go to your local wine shop and buy the bulk table wines available, or you can spend more money and buy the premium bottlings.

Having been to both Italy and France, where these options exist, this gives the consumer the option to decide what they want to do. In Italy, some of the best wine I had was a bulk local Barbera, sold for about 5 euros a liter. I certainly had wonderful bottles of wine, but for the quality and price point you couldn't beat it.

If we can offer a choice in the States, fill your own for everyday varietals, or go to the 300+ bottle shop, and increasing the recycling efforts, carbon neutral wineries, and better environmental responsibility, then we can achieve a balance.

oh, and WORLD PEACE! ;-)

I can't drink alcohol so this might be a bit odd coming from me, but in principle if this ever went through, this would be a wonderful boon for local growers by potentially opening people's eyes and going to the source to purchase wins, or as Pourgirl mentions, patronizing a store that has a particular flavor that you want.

I guess it's really silly how many wines there are at your average grocery store chain (300+ types), and thinking about how each wine comes in a(several) case(s), and each case is delivered to each grocery store. For the amount of floor space all those wines take, 3 barrels would take up less than 1/2 the floor space.

If the particular barrel doesn't sell well, get a different type next time an order needs to be placed. Warehousing, ordering, and contract negotiation for wine would change, but I'm sure all that's changed over time anyway.

I'd have to agree with the previous commenters, as much as I really love the notion (and by the way, I think it may be legal for producers in CA to do this - for example, some micro-breweries have refillable "growlers". But I suspect this is at the producer location only, not the retailer.)

A barrel weighs several hundred pounds full, so you would need a large enough truck to make that delivery safely, and a forklift at each end to move it - you either have to take the 'lift with you or there has to be one available. Kind of leaves the smaller retailers out of the picture...

Deb, thanks for mentioning Free the Grapes! Yes, the exclamation point is part of our name and our goal is to channel consumer frustration over direct shipping prohibitions into constructive action (i.e., better laws). The Supreme Court may have ruled on the issue, but we still have more grapes to free.

There are still some wineries that do this. But the biggest problem for doing it in retail spaces is that it severely reduces the wines that a store will carry. How many grocery stores are going to stock 30 full-sized wine barrels? (That would be 5 options for 6 different varietals or styles, that is far fewer than all but what most gas station convenience stores carry). The American retail system is about choice, while this could work for a chain's private label, they would have to continue stocking conventional wines/bottles in order to draw enough consumers. The other big concern I see is the wine going bad within the barrel if it is sitting for too long. Other than adding constant nitrogen to force out oxygen, the option is to ship the wine in a bag in a barrel and then the barrel is doing nothing but adding to shipping weight.