S 7398: Establishes grocery store wine licenses permitting the licensee to sell from the licensed premises wine produced in New York state or produced from ingredients grown or produced in New York state, in sealed containers for consumption off such premises.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7398 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE April 14, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. BORRELLO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Commerce, Economic Devel- opment and Small Business AN ACT to amend the alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to establishing grocery store wine licenses The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivisions 3 and 5 of section 75 of the alcoholic bever- 2 age control law, subdivision 3 as amended by section 4 of part K of 3 chapter 60 of the laws of 2004 and subdivision 5 as added by chapter 355 4 of the laws of 2013, are amended and a new subdivision 6 is added to 5 read as follows: 6 3. Seven day license to sell wine at retail for consumption off the 7 premises subject to paragraph (a) of subdivision fourteen of section one 8 hundred five of this chapter[.]; 9 5. Roadside farm market license[.]; 10 6. Grocery store wine license. 11 § 2. The alcoholic beverage control law is amended by adding a new 12 section 79-e to read as follows: 13 § 79-e. Grocery store wine license. 1. Any person may apply to the 14 authority for a grocery store wine license as provided for in this 15 section to sell from the licensed premises wine produced in New York 16 state or produced from ingredients grown or produced in New York state, 17 in sealed containers for consumption off such premises. 18 2. A grocery store wine license shall permit the licensee to sell only 19 wine produced in New York state or produced from ingredients grown or 20 produced in New York state. 21 3. No such license shall be issued, however, to any person for any 22 premises other than a grocery store, as defined in subdivision thirteen 23 of section three of this chapter. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD11402-01-5 
 S. 7398 2 1 4. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, except for 2 good cause shown, the authority shall issue a grocery store wine license 3 to the holder of a license to sell beer at retail for consumption off 4 the premises pursuant to section fifty-four of this chapter, or beer and 5 wine products at retail for consumption off the premises pursuant to 6 section fifty-four-a of this chapter, at the request of such licensee 7 and thereafter renewed or transferred, which authorizes the holder ther- 8 eof to sell beer at retail to a person for consumption in their home. 9 (b) For the purposes of this section, the premises of the grocery 10 store wine licensee shall be the same as the premises licensed under 11 section fifty-four or fifty-four-a of this chapter. 12 (c) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, any license 13 issued pursuant to this section shall run concurrently with the underly- 14 ing license under section fifty-four or fifty-four-a of this chapter, 15 and shall be deemed expired at such time as the underlying license 16 expires. 17 (d) Any person licensed to sell wine pursuant to this article shall be 18 permitted to conduct wine tastings. Wine tastings which are conducted 19 under the auspices of an official agent of a farm winery, winery, whole- 20 saler, or importer and where such agent is physically present at all 21 times during the conduct of the tasting, then, in that event, any 22 liability stemming from a right of action resulting from a wine tasting 23 as authorized pursuant to this section, and in accordance with the 24 provisions of sections 11-100 and 11-101 of the general obligations law, 25 shall accrue to the farm winery, winery, wholesaler, or importer. 26 5. Such application shall be in such form and shall contain such 27 information as shall be required by the rules of the authority and shall 28 be accompanied by a check or draft in the amount required by this arti- 29 cle for such license. 30 6. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, any person 31 receiving a license pursuant to this section shall not be subject to the 32 provisions of subdivision two, three or four of section seventy-nine of 33 this article. 34 7. Notwithstanding any other provisions of this chapter, any person 35 receiving a license pursuant to this section shall not be subject to the 36 provisions of paragraph (a) of subdivision three and subdivision four- 37 teen of section one hundred five of this chapter. 38 8. (a) A one-time franchise fee shall be paid for by each licensee to 39 the state liquor authority. This franchise fee is hereby imposed at a 40 rate of ten thousand dollars. 41 (b) No license shall be issued pursuant to this section until the 42 franchise fee or estimated franchise fee required by paragraph (a) of 43 this subdivision has been paid in full. 44 (c) The franchise fee shall be deposited and disposed of in the same 45 manner as any license fee as provided in section one hundred twenty-five 46 of this chapter. 47 9. Any person licensed to sell wine at retail for consumption off the 48 premises under section seventy-nine of this article is authorized to 49 sell wine to persons licensed to sell wine under this article and this 50 section who operate the premises of the grocery store wine licensee. 51 10. The state liquor authority may make such rules as it deems neces- 52 sary to carry out the provisions of this section. 53 § 3. Section 83 of the alcoholic beverage control law is amended by 54 adding a new subdivision 10 to read as follows: 
 S. 7398 3 1 10. The annual fee for a grocery store wine license pursuant to 2 section seventy-nine-e of this article shall be at a rate of one-half 3 (0.5) percent of sales of wine sold. 4 § 4. Subdivision 2-a of section 100 of the alcoholic beverage control 5 law, as amended by chapter 249 of the laws of 2002, is amended to read 6 as follows: 7 2-a. No retailer shall employ, or permit to be employed, or shall 8 suffer to work, on any premises licensed for retail sale hereunder, any 9 person under the age of eighteen years[, as a hostess, waitress, waiter, 10 or] in any [other] capacity where the duties of such person require or 11 permit such person to sell, dispense or handle alcoholic beverages; 12 except that: (1) any person under the age of eighteen years and employed 13 by any person holding a grocery or drug store beer license shall be 14 permitted to handle and deliver beer and wine products for such licen- 15 see, (2) any person under the age of eighteen employed as a cashier by a 16 person holding a grocery or drug store beer license shall be permitted 17 to record and receive payment for beer and wine product sales when in 18 the presence of and under the direct supervision of a person eighteen 19 years of age or over, (2-a) any person under the age of eighteen years 20 and employed by a person holding a grocery store or drug store beer 21 license as either a cashier or in any other position to which handling 22 of containers which may have held alcoholic beverages is necessary, 23 shall be permitted to handle the containers if such have been presented 24 for redemption in accordance with the provisions of title ten of article 25 twenty-seven of the environmental conservation law, [and] (3) any person 26 under the age of eighteen years employed as a dishwasher, busboy, or 27 other such position as to which handling of containers which may have 28 held alcoholic beverages is necessary shall be permitted to do so under 29 the direct supervision of a person of legal age to purchase alcoholic 30 beverages in the state, (4) any person under the age of eighteen years 31 and employed by any person holding a grocery store wine license shall be 32 permitted to handle and deliver wine for such licensee, and (5) any 33 person under the age of eighteen employed as a cashier by a person hold- 34 ing a grocery store wine license shall be permitted to record and 35 receive payment for wine when in the presence of and under the direct 36 supervision of a person eighteen years of age or over. 37 § 5. Subdivisions 3-a and 3-b of section 102 of the alcoholic beverage 38 control law, as amended by chapter 458 of the laws of 1993, are amended 39 to read as follows: 40 3-a. No licensee or permittee shall purchase or agree to purchase any 41 alcoholic beverages from any person within the state who is not duly 42 licensed to sell such alcoholic beverage as the case may be, at the time 43 of such agreement and sale nor give any order for any alcoholic beverage 44 to any individual who is not the holder of a solicitor's permit, except 45 as provided for in section eighty-five [or], ninety-nine-g, or seventy- 46 nine-e of this chapter. 47 3-b. No retail licensee shall purchase, agree to purchase or receive 48 any alcoholic beverage except from a person duly licensed within the 49 state by the liquor authority to sell such alcoholic beverage at the 50 time of such agreement and sale to such retail licensee, except as 51 provided for in section eighty-five [or], ninety-nine-g, or seventy- 52 nine-e of this chapter. 53 § 6. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi- 54 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of 55 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, 56 impair, or invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in 
 S. 7398 4 1 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section 2 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judg- 3 ment shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be the intent of 4 the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if such 5 invalid provisions had not been included herein. 6 § 7. This act shall take effect immediately.