(Wine-Searcher) - Liza B. Zimmerman examines how US wine selection is affected by grocery-store sales

Growing up New York City, wine sales were never – and still aren't – legally permitted in grocery stores; we had to seek out new discoveries at the local wine store. However, as a wine writer I had always been pro free-market trends and had viewed West Coast supermarket wine sales as a step in the right direction.

But when I moved to the West Coast a decade ago – first to Seattle and then San Francisco – I started to question what benefits supermarket wine sales actually brought to the local, independent wine market. The major California labels may all be on the shelf, along with a smattering of major imports, but not much else at most leading supermarkets.

The volume of specific wine brands that national grocery stores sell well exceeds what most mid- to small-sized producers can satisfy. Smaller distributors don't have enough staff to stock and, sometimes, work the wine aisles of major grocery chains. This I learned the hard way when I worked for a small importer of mostly Portuguese wines called Vinum Wine Importing & Distributing in Seattle a decade ago. We couldn't get our wines picked up in more than one grocery outlet as we didn't have enough volume or sufficient sales force to support sales in all locations.

Data and limitations

According to the Washington DC-based Food Marketing Institute (FMI), 33 states and the District of Columbia permit "food stores" to sell wine. Almost all of these states, not including New York and New Jersey, allow multiple-wine licenses for retailers. This makes them much more appealing retail targets for grocery stores and national chains such as Total Wine & More or BevMo! who are respectively based in Maryland and the Bay Area.

According to a 2012 FMI study, grocery stores have a key sales advantage for core consumers. "Nationally, more than 50 percent of wine is purchased by women, who traditionally are uncomfortable in conventional package stores. Women thus tend to buy wine in food stores, or not buy it at all."

Many of the states that restrict multi-unit wine licenses are also control states, where the government ostensibly regulates the sale of alcohol for the public's benefit, as is the case in Canada and much of Scandinavia. The largest, and most notable, current US control states include Pennsylvania, Michigan and Oregon. As a result, according to the FMI report, there are 155,327 outlets for retail wine sales in open states, versus 16,387 for closed states.

"There are certain markets, like Colorado, where our licenses are limited legally by the state and require separate [store] entrances", said Doug Bell, Whole Foods' 416-location senior global coordinator of beverage. Such regulations may limit grocery stores' ability to sell wine, but might make for an independent wine retailer's dream location.

"It would be so great to have a store in Colorado or New York where supermarkets don't compete", added Clyde Beffa, owner of the three-location, California-based fine wine retailer K&L Wine Merchants. That equation for him would mean: "Only one Costco and one Trader Joe's. We would love it."