(PostGazette) - A bill to permit widespread shipment of wine to homes cleared a Senate committee on Tuesday, with the chairman saying the topic needs to be addressed before the state can make broader changes to its system of state-owned wine and liquor sales.

“This issue is kind of sticking out,” said Sen. Chuck McIlhinney, R-Bucks. “I think you need to put this to rest before we can move ahead and start talking about what we’re going to do with our state stores.”

At the moment, Pennsylvania consumers can order for shipment to their homes from holders of limited winery licenses, available to producers making up to 200,000 gallons of wine each year, said Stacy Kriedeman, spokeswoman for the state Liquor Control Board. That has been the case since 2005, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states allowing their own wineries to ship directly to consumers must let out-of-state wineries do the same.

Of the 267 wineries holding that type of license, only a small number are from other states, according to Liquor Control Board records.

The bill that cleared the Senate Law & Justice Committee on Tuesday would make wineries anywhere eligible for a license allowing them to deliver wine directly to consumers. A resident could order up to 36 cases of wine from a particular winery in a given year.

Shippers would be required to verify the customer’s age and mark packaging to indicate its contents.

The committee amended an earlier version of the bill, which had passed the House 192-1, to change how the shipments would be taxed. It replaced an 18 percent liquor tax, first levied at a lower rate after the 1936 Johnstown flood, with an excise tax of $1 per gallon.

Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, pushed for a different taxation scheme, but that amendment was voted down by the Republican committee members.

“I think there’s an opportunity to lose potential revenue if we don’t go for a percentage, as opposed to per gallon, on the price,” Mr. Brewster said.

The bill could receive a Senate vote as soon as next week, said a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Centre. If it passes, it will return to the House.

Proposals for Pennsylvania’s approximately 600 wine and spirits stores — including a House bill to turn the business over to the private sector and Gov. Tom Wolf’s call to improve the existing stores — may be included in talks on the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.