(Wine Searcher) - Some shipments of wine from New York are being confiscated and destroyed.

UPS and FedEx are confiscating and disposing of some wines shipped from New York retail stores to customers out of state.

It's totally legal for UPS and FedEx to do this, because wine shipping by retail stores to and from New York is not legal. The delivery company does not have to compensate anyone for the wine either.

Yet the idea that FedEx or UPS would let someone take a hammer and smash a bottle of Château Margaux that some anxious enophile in Indiana ordered from a Manhattan retailer: for a wine lover, even if it's not your bottle, it's painful.

We're not sure how many retailers have experienced this: we spoke to New York retailers who continue to ship wine as before without problems. It complicates reporting this story that neither those retailers or those that have had wines confiscated want to be named, as it would put more scrutiny on them from the New York State Liquor Authority.