Say you are planning a big event for which you’ll want to have on hand a bunch of wine. State legal restrictions may allow you to only buy relatively small bottles of wine from a local store. In Florida. the legal maximum amount of wine in wine bottles sold to the public has been set at a gallon, a little less than four liters.
You could buy every bottle of wine in the store legally, but buying just one bottle of wine that contains over the maximum allowed amount would be verboten. It is one of those irritating “nanny state” restrictions that government so often can’t resist imposing in the name protecting people from themselves.
On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law HB 583, a bill to legalize buying larger bottles of wine at stores in the state. It is another step in the 91 years long process of tearing down lingering portions of alcohol prohibition.
The governor’s press release regarding his signing the bill notes that the bill will legalize the purchase of “many commonly used” wine bottle sizes including Methuselah (6 liters), Salmanazar (9 liters), Balthazar (12 liters), and Nebuchadnezzar (15 liters).
I propose a toast to Governor DeSantis: “Here’s to the governor taking this step for liberty and to him taking many more in the future.”
