A “loophole” in the New York Craft Beverage Act is preventing craft distilleries from offering certain spirits to the public in their tasting rooms, according to Long Island Spirits owner Richard Stabile.
Distilleries are currently unable to serve certain spirits in their tasting rooms unless at least 75 percent of their ingredients are grown in New York State, due to a restriction built into the New York Craft Beverage Act, which was signed into law last November.
But some spirits require ingredients that aren’t grown in New York, leaving distilleries with no local options and barring them from testing those spirits on the local market in their tasting rooms.
“These little nuances weren’t considered when we first passed this bill,” said New York State Assemblyman Anthony Palumbo. “This was an unintended consequence.”
Palumbo is now proposing an amendment to the law, which will allow an exception for spirits so that they can be offered in tasting rooms even if 75 percent of their ingredients haven’t been grown in New York.
“When it comes to spirits, it’s a different animal than beer and wine,” Palumbo said at a press conference today in Baiting Hollow at Long Island Spirits, which is the only standalone craft distillery on Long Island. “They need different types of ingredients that aren’t necessarily grown locally in order to create a different product.”
He pointed out that Long Island Spirits produces bourbons that it can’t test locally in its tasting room, because some of their ingredients can’t be found on New York farms.
“We use tasting rooms to try out the products like a test bed,” said Stabile. “That way we can see if the product’s going to work before we pump it into our national distribution channel.”
The amendment is also supported by local farmers, according to Ron Carpenter, administrative director of the Long Island Farm Bureau. Carpenter believes that allowing tastings of spirits which contain non-local ingredients can help farmers figure out which crops to grow to fulfill local demand.
“Growing agricultural commodities on Long Island is difficult economically,” he said. “Farmers require well-defined planned usage from a distillery to support investment in planting new varieties of crops. Innovation and the creation of sustainable use of land are critically important to farmers as they look for the ‘next big thing’ for expensive farmland.”
The New York Craft Beverage Act has been enormously beneficial to the beer, wine and distillery industries on Long Island. It has eased regulations for New York’s burgeoning craft beverage industry, allowing distilleries like Long Island Spirits to serve full-size drinks in their tasting rooms without requiring a separate permit.
“There’s a significant craft distillery movement, and New York State’s been at the forefront of that,” Stabile said at the press conference. “When I started Long Island Spirits in 2007, there were only five other distilleries in the state. Today, there’s more than 90.”
Palumbo says this amendment will help craft distilleries grow even more. “This amendment is necessary to further innovation in our state’s distilleries,” he said. “It’s time the language of this bill was altered so they can operate at their full potential and contribute to our economy statewide.”
