(AB) - In the past 18 months or so, the state has taken two steps in an effort to help out the Arkansas wine industry. The first was a law passed by the state Legislature allowing direct shipping from Arkansas wineries to customers, and the second was the erection of highway signs publicizing the Arkansas Wine Country Trail and the location of state wineries that give tours of their operations.

Of the two initiatives, Arkansas vintners are much more pleased with the signs.

While the direct shipping law was “a foot in the door,” according to more than one winery owner, the law’s restrictions make it, for now, almost counterproductive.

Arkansas’ wine producers said Act 483, which went into effect in August 2013, puts the state wineries at a competitive disadvantage to out-of-state shippers. The Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration said 114 permits have been issued to allow shipping to Arkansas consumers, but only two permits have been given to a state winery.

Audrey House of Chateau aux Arc in Altus said she had no plans to ship wine currently, but “I got the permit because I fought for it.”

Of the other 112 permits issued by the state, nearly 100 have been to California wine producers. The Wine Institute said California shipped out about 215 million cases of wine — a case is 12 bottles — in 2013, nearly 57 percent of the wine shipping market.

The disadvantage, Arkansas wineries say, is that the law allows wine to be shipped only if it was ordered on-site. The law also limits shipments to one case every quarter of a year; although four cases can be ordered at one time, they then must be shipped out one at a time.

Winery owners said the ABC would probably have a fairly easy time checking to make sure a case mailed by a winery in Altus was ordered by a customer actually in the store. It would be a much more involved, and costly, procedure to make sure the same was true for a shipment from a winery in Alameda, California.

“It won’t do any good for any wineries in Arkansas,” said Doug Hausler of Keels Creek Winery in Eureka Springs. “No one is going to send anyone to California to check. It does no good for Arkansas wineries. All the law did is put us at a disadvantage to all the California wineries.

“Why? Why? What people want is to be able to pick up the phone.”