ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida lawmakers could soon allow consumers to purchase bigger bottles of wine and take home wine from restaurants without buying food.
- Senate Bill 220 lifts several restrictions on selling wine
- Allows for bigger bottles, allows customers to take bottles home
- Bill has been filed twice
State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, filed a bill Wednesday in Tallahassee that would change state law to eliminate restrictions on wine containers.
Florida law currently restricts the sale of wine to containers smaller than one gallon, which is approximately five standard 750ml bottles.
Senate Bill 220 would allow wineries, retailers, and restaurants alike to sell wine in unlimited size containers.
Calling the current law “stupid,” Brandes said he was inspired to file the legislation after dining at a restaurant one night and learning how a restaurant could gift an “illegal size” bottle of wine but couldn’t sell it.
The bill, if passed, would also allow consumers to take home partially consumed bottles of wine from restaurants without having to purchase a meal.
Current law only allows bottles to be taken if a consumer purchases a “full course meal, consisting of a salad or vegetables, entrée, a beverage, and bread.”
Under the new law, a restaurant would still have to reseal the bottle, and a person would have to keep the bottle “placed in a locked glove compartment, a locked trunk, or the area behind the last upright seat of a motor vehicle that is not equipped with a trunk” while driving.
“Anything you do to change the laws to make them easier to sell wine helps,” said John Hutchinson.
Hutchinson, and his wife Sherry, own Hutchinson Farm Winery in Apopka. They are among 30 certified wineries in Florida, and produce about 500 gallons of wine per year.
The Hutchinsons say the new law could be beneficial in promoting and supporting the state’s growing wine industry.
In 2018, lawmakers passed a bill that now allows consumers to purchase beer in larger 64 ounce containers called growlers.
“If it happens with beer, that might be an open avenue for us to get more wine out there and sell more product,” Sherry Hutchinson said. “I think anything you do to make local people – and the people who come into Orlando – to know we make wine in Florida, anything we can do to get that word out there is good.”
Senate Bill 220 has been filed twice before, making it to the Senate floor each time. Brandes told Spectrum News he is confident that the measure could become law in 2019.
The Florida Legislative Session begins in March.