Starting this summer, Mississippi residents will be able to place orders with out-of-state, boutique wineries and have them shipped directly to their front doors.
For years, residents who ordered from wineries in other states had to have their selections sent to a liquor store, but that is changing thanks to the efforts of Sen. Walter Michel, who represents District 25 (Hinds and Madison counties).
The 2025 legislative session was Michel’s eighth try at getting a bill passed that wine lovers have wanted.
“After eight years of work, I’m glad to get it to the finish line,” he said. “It failed the first time it was on the Senate floor and then it was brought back up and some people changed their votes.”
The bill, which the governor could sign into law or let become a law without his signature, would become law on July 1.
According to the Wines Vines Analytics Winery Database, the United States is now home to 11,691 wineries, which is nearly 400 more than in 2021 and 1,215 more than in 2020.
There are wineries in all 50 states, with California and Oregon having the largest numbers of them.
In 2022, 49 percent of all U.S. wineries fell into the “limited production” category, making fewer than 1,000 cases, while 33 percent are classified in the database as “very small,” producing fewer than 5,000 cases, according to the Wines Vines Analytics Winery Database. Combined, the two categories accounted for 82 percent of all U.S. wineries in 2022.
In 2022, the lobbying group Wine America released a report that stated the industry generates $276 billion in total economic activity by employing more than 1 million people, generating more than $95 billion in direct and indirect wages and nearly $23 billion in tax revenue.
What the state Mississippi law will do is nothing groundbreaking. Forty-seven other states are set up for sales by out-of-state wineries, Michel said.
The new Mississippi law will require a winery to buy a wholesaler’s permit for $100 from the Alcohol Beverage Control division of the Mississippi Department of Revenue.
“That’s how we sign them up to collect taxes
on the transaction,” Michel said. “The tax on a bottle of wine will be 15.5 percent, which is double what the grocery tax is.”
The bill passed is for wines not sold at package stores in the state and allows an individual to order 12 cases of specialty wine per year.
“You can’t just call a liquor store in Louisiana,” said Sen. Walter Michel,
Michel said the wines ordered will cost “$70, $80 and $100” and upward per bottle compared to the No.1 bestselling wine in the state, which is a $6 bottle branded MD that is better known as Mad Dog.
National trade associations related to wineries will alert them that they will soon be able to ship to Mississippi, provided each purchase a wholesaler’s permit, he said.
Mississippi is an alcohol-control state, which means the wine and liquor sold in the state must go through the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) warehouse in Gluckstadt before they are transported to package stores to fill their orders.
“The ABC warehouse has limitations on how much inventory it can hold,” Michel said. “With this new law, we don’t have to inventory the wine that is ordered and don’t have to take it from the warehouse and drive it to Tupelo or Biloxi, wherever the liquor store may be that ordered it.”
Wine takes up 60 percent of the floor space at the ABC warehouse but accounts for only 40 percent of the revenue generated, he said. Any bottles of alcohol that happen to get dropped at the warehouse are a loss for the state, he said.
“What we have with this new law is we can tax a $125 bottle of wine at 15.5 percent and not have to inventory it.”
Richie Peaster, co-owner of Madison Cellars at 1038 U.S. 51 in Madison, said he doesn’t expect the new law to have an impact on local stores.
He realizes that many people travel to Napa Valley in California, the Finger Lakes in New York and the Hill Country in Texas and visit wineries, find a wine they like and want to order it when they return home.
He fears the ease of direct order could keep the ABC warehouse from stocking new wines and that may hurt consumers who want selections on the shelves of their local liquor store.
Peaster is most concerned that the bill that passed is a precursor to other bills such as liquor sales on Sunday and the sale of liquor at grocery stores, which he believes would impact locally owned, small businesses.
Liquor stores in the state provide job opportunities for many people and generate sales tax income, he said, and that shouldn’t be overlooked.
