the California Depart-
ment of Alcohol Bever-
age Control (ABC).
The issue was a retweet
( a s h a r e d t w e e t ) r e a d i n g :
"Two days till @SaveMart Grape
Escape in Downtown #Sacramento!
Get tickets and info here: http://bit.ly/
U7XFVq." Seems harmless, right? But
under federal tied-house regulations,
the promotion of one retailer over
another is unlawful for producers of
alcoholic beverages.
TIED-HOUSE LEGACY
The term tied-house goes back to
the era just before Prohibition, when
saloons in the United States were
ast November, an article by
Chris Macias in the Sacra-
mento Bee newspaper made its
way around the wine industry,
prompting a discussion about
how social media fits into the
regulated world of wine advertis-
ing. The article, "Tweets Cause
Trouble for Sacramento-Area
Wineries, Breweries," show-
cased a tweet that got a Sacra-
mento winery into trouble with
The Tweet Heard
'Round the
Wine Industry
It's a thin line between
social media compliance
and violation
BY SHANA BULL
8 8 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T
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M a y - J u n e 2 015
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m
