Pa. businesses applying to sell take-out wine

HARRISBURG - Scores of businesses holding Pennsylvania restaurant and hotel liquor licenses applied Monday for new permits that allow them to to sell wine to go.

It was the first day the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board accepted applications under changes in alcohol-sales laws approved earlier in the year by the General Assembly and Gov. Wolf.

The law, signed in June, expands the roster of potential wine vendors to include about 10,000 holders of restaurant licenses - including more than 300 grocery and convenience stores currently allowed to sell beer - and about 1,200 holders of hotel licenses, according to the Liquor Control Board.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, a spokeswoman for the Liquor Control Board said, the agency had received applications from 53 restaurant and hotel license holders for expanded permits, which would allow them to sell up to three liters of take-out wine per transaction.

The board said it had received 33 applications for new direct wine-shipper licenses, which will allow wine producers to ship up to 36 cases of wine a year to a Pennsylvania resident for personal use.

Customers could see wine to go on the shelves of some private businesses this month, the agency said in a news release, although it said that license holders who need large quantities of wine or types the state does not already stock might have to wait longer to receive those products. The Liquor Control Board aims to begin shipping wine to businesses intending to sell large volumes of wine to go around October.

David McCorkle, president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Food Merchants Association, which represents grocery and convenience stores, said he expects "just about all" the grocery and convenience stores with a license to sell beer will be interested in applying to also sell wine.

klangley@post-gazette.com 717-787-2141 @@karen_langley