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.
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