It’s the shot they needed.
New York breweries and distilleries are cheersing a brand new bill that allows them to directly ship alcohol to consumers.
The buzz-worthy measure — which was temporarily in place during the COVID-19 pandemic — removes a restriction that prevented small distillers, breweries and cideries from shipping their goods directly to consumers and across state lines.
“What direct-to-consumer shipping is at the heart of it is just parity,” Brian Facquet, founder of Do Good Spirits, a Sullivan County-based distillery, told The Post.
Facquet, who is also head of the New York Distillers Guild, says the newly signed law gives manufacturers of beer, ciders and liquor the same ability to ship their goods as winemakers have been able to do since 2005.
“It’s just crazy that half of the manufacturers were doing what the other half couldn’t,” Facquet said.
The bill was quietly signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul Sunday before she slipped off to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It also allows New Yorkers to order from other states as long as they have similar laws also letting their residents purchase from New York manufacturers.
While Facquet doesn’t think it’s going to be a “windfall” for the mom-and-pop booze purveyors, he thinks it will help many take the big step toward generating enough sales to get into liquor stores.
“They just don’t have market access and without market access, you can’t be on the shelves,” he said.
Sonya Del Peral, owner of Nine Pin Cider wrote in a statement, “The establishment of this new channel of trade will position New York farm cideries to continue supporting the Empire State’s extraordinary orchards and farms – Drink NY Apples!”
The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Jim Skoufis (D-Orange) and Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D-Broome), faced stiff opposition from package stores, which argued opening up shipping would lead to a wave of underage kids getting drunk off of directly shipped craft apple brandy and ginger sparkling cider.
“This new law will provide an enormous boost to hundreds of craft beverage producers and the farmers who support them all while providing a safe, convenient medium for adult consumers to responsibly enjoy their favorite drink,” Skoufis (D-Orange) told The Post.
During the pandemic, the state relaxed the rules, allowing for direct-to-consumer shipping. The governor’s office said that period yielded “no recorded violations.”
“This legislation levels the playing field, allowing these small producers to reach new markets and foster economic growth across the state,” Hochul said in a statement. “With this new law, we are ensuring that New York remains a national leader in craft beverages, continuing to support our local businesses, tourism, and agriculture.”
But not everyone was drinking up the good news.
“I don’t think the way we changed this law is looking out for their best interest,” said Michael Correra, owner of a liquor store in Brooklyn Heights and president of the Metropolitan Package Store Association, referring to the micro-brewers.
Correra said his concern is that the larger liquor behemoths who lobbied for the bill could stand to exploit the legislation to more easily ship their own smaller labels.
“This is not just about the small distilleries, this could lead to the larger distilleries bypassing the whole reseller network,” he said.
