Lawmakers have offered several proposals to repair the broken, outdated way the state governs alcohol through the N.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control system. About a dozen bills, in fact, are moving through the General Assembly, and one, House Bill 363, the Craft Beer Distribution and Modernization Act, is now law.
A measure that North Carolina craft distillers are counting on to help them thrive and, in some cases, simply survive is moving in the General Assembly. Senate Bill 290 was amended and debated Wednesday, June 5, in the Senate Commerce and Insurance Committee, but…
Please, send this one back. It tastes bitter. Opponents of measures that would relax North Carolina’s arcane — punitive, even — ABC laws are running out of new arguments, which are becoming more pervasive, more hard-edged. The clock, they know, is ticking.
The Distillers Association of North Carolina, calling the state’s system of controlling liquor “an 80-year-old regulatory scheme,” is urging lawmakers to reform and modernize the antiquated system. Such moves, DANC says in a statement, would be to the “benefit of our state and its citizens.”…
For North Carolina’s distillers, getting their products into ABC stores is arduous and time-consuming. Distillers must first check all the boxes pertinent to federal and state laws. The state must then approve their products before distillers send those products to Raleigh for distribution to ABC stores across the state. …
Head distiller Chris Jude steps through a door at the High Wire Distilling Co. in Charleston, South Carolina. Jude, who’s from Boone, enters the tasting room and bar, making the short trip from the place spirits are made to the place spirits are served. Customers sitting at the long…
Count the village of Clemmons as the latest N.C. municipality to allow the sale of alcohol beginning at 10 a.m. Sunday mornings. About 19,000 people live in the village, a suburb of Winston-Salem in Forsyth County, home to breweries, wineries, and several distilleries, including Old Nick…
Much of the reporting on the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been cluttered with moans, groans, and general derision. But the act includes provisions that, until now, were talked about mainly within their respective circles of interest. Provisions that reduce taxes for…
Senate Bill 155 slid through the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday and, slowed by only the usual dissenters, advanced to the Rules Committee with nary a soft grimace nor a lingering burn. The original bill was replaced during the hearing by a Proposed Committee Substitute.
The North Carolina House on Thursday filed a companion bill to Senate Bill 155. The so-called “brunch bill” would allow restaurants to sell alcohol before noon Sunday. But, more important to the state’s burgeoning distilling industry, the bill would increase purchase limits from one bottle to five bottles per…
