Viva Batista

W. Blake Gray recently had a fascinating article in the Chronicle’s outstanding* Wine section on Jonathan Newman, chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), and his efforts to inject a passion for wine into the great, gray bureaucracy that controls all liquor sales in the Keystone State.  This week, the Chron published my letter in response (third one down from the top):

Editor  —  Great article on Jonathan Newman and the Pennsylvania Liquor
Control Board. I grew up in Pennsylvania and my parents still live there, so I
go back several times a year. My family has always loved wine, and we’ve often
been disappointed with the state’s management over the years  —  hardly a
surprise.

Newman has been very successful at making the PLCB and their "state
stores" more consumer-friendly, particularly for wine drinkers. It wasn’t many
years ago that state stores felt like government offices, staffed by
bureaucrats  —  which they are. Marketing was nonexistent, wine selection was
minimal, the stores were dreary, and the staff was unhelpful. You wondered if
they even knew what they were selling. It was such a sterile experience having
to buy wine in an environment like that.

Things have definitely improved, at least at the store my parents
frequent. It’s bright, well-organized and cheery, and the staff are informed
and enthusiastic. It’s almost like a regular wine store here in California.

Despite this significant progress, the system as a whole still seems
bizarre and deeply antithetical to our ideals of free enterprise and personal
liberty. That’s great that Newman can use his monopoly buying power to cut
advantageous deals with winemakers and that 20 percent of state stores are now
open on Sunday, but I think Pennsylvania residents would be better off if they
were free to buy their wine from a range of retail outlets, just like those of
us in almost every other state.

* I do love the Chron’s Wine section.  In-depth features (often on overlooked
appellations or far-flung winemaking regions), dishy wine industry
notes, regular cheese and cocktail columns, and an excellent bargain wine column make it must-reading.  But I do have two gripes: 1) The centerpiece "Wine Selection"
column which presents notes from a panel tasting of about 20 bottles of
a different type of wine each week, could be so much better.
In its current incarnation,it’s bloodless and repetitive–no raves, no
pans, just descriptive lists that all sound the same.  And 2) an
occasional tendency to lapse into fawning, society-page treatments of
industry bigshots–not terribly surprising, because their marketing
dollars make the whole enterprise run, but a little disappointing
nonetheless.  Quibbles, I know.