Alcohol licensing and direct-to-consumer sales
New Jersey drinkmakers could keep delivery and cocktails to go
Assembly Member Luanne Peterpaul’s bill would make permanent a pandemic-era carveout for some breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies and craft distilleries. It also sets limits on cider and mead shipping, plus rules for marked delivery vehicles and small samples.
New Jersey alcohol makers could keep a direct line to customers at home. The bill keeps the door open for certain deliveries, sealed cocktails to go and limited shipping of cider and mead.
- Permanent delivery rights would cover a narrow set of licensed businesses.
- Customers would still have to be 21 or older, and purchases would be for personal use only.
- Cider and mead shipping would be capped at 12 cases a year each.
- Deliveries would need marked vehicles tied to the licensed premises.
- Sampling would be limited to a small pour or a nominal-charge taste.
In New Jersey, adult customers could keep taking home sealed cocktails and bottles of cider if Assembly Member Luanne Peterpaul’s bill becomes law. The measure would make permanent a pandemic-era exception for certain breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies and craft distilleries.
The proposal also reaches smaller producers. Limited breweries, plenary wineries, farm wineries, cideries, meaderies and craft distilleries would keep or gain direct-delivery authority to New Jersey residences, as long as the buyer is 21 or older, the drinks are in original containers and the purchase is for personal consumption, not resale. Craft distilleries would also get clearer authority to sell sealed mixed drinks to go, along with certain bottle-and-mixer pairings.
How the delivery lane is fenced in
The bill does not open a free-for-all shipment market. Deliveries would have to travel in a vehicle owned, operated or otherwise used in connection with the licensed premises, and that vehicle would need a transit insignia under R.S.33:1-28. The point is traceability, not convenience alone.
Available key vote records show the bill advanced without recorded no votes.
The small-print rules for cider, mead and sampling
Cider and mead producers would get a capped shipping lane of their own, with no more than 12 cases of cider and 12 cases of mead a year, and each case limited to nine liters. That gives smaller producers a way to reach customers beyond the tasting room without turning them into unlimited mail-order businesses.
The bill also tightens the language around sampling. Under the revised definition, sampling means either a nominal-charge sale or a free open container of no more than four ounces of malt alcoholic beverage, a line meant to separate a taste from a pour.