States With the Weirdest Wine Laws
Can't buy a bottle? Money and politics are to blame.

Imagine walking into a grocery store for some brie, a baguette and a Beaujolais. You can buy the bread and the cheese, but for the wine--you need to take a Breathalyzer test. Welcome to life in Pennsylvania.

No matter where you live, though, chances are your state has some strange liquor laws--and it's all because of money and politics.

Take New York, where shoppers can't buy Merlot and Mallomars under one roof. Legalizing wine sales in grocery stores is one of several ideas the state has mulled as it tries to overcome a $9.2 billion budget shortfall--but politics got in the way of change. Some wine-shop owners felt that big grocery stores would undercut them on price. Others, such as Daniel Posner, owner of Grapes The Wine Company in White Plains, N.Y., would be happy to sell the good stuff while the grocery stores carry Yellow Tail. "The reality is that wine in grocery stores would make it more convenient for consumers to purchase wine," says Posner.

Granted, New Yorkers could have it much worse. In Kentucky and Utah it's a felony--meaning a prison term over one year--to buy a case from a winery and have it shipped to you!

If you think your state's wine laws are crazy, click here to make your voice heard. There's also a new bill in Congress that could wipe out consumer-friendly wine laws across the country. You can voice your opposition to that bill here.