NDT H.B. 3176 75(R)BILL ANALYSIS LICENSING & ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES H.B. 3176 By: Jones, Delwin 4-14-97 Committee Report (Unamended) BACKGROUND The Texas Wine Industry is growing in popularity in Texas, both in the production of Texas Wines and in the tourism business. Many people visit Texas wineries to tour the facilities and sample the wines. Unlike other states, such as California, Texas law does not allow wineries to charge for wine samplings at the wineries. This bill would allow wineries to charge for samplings, with certain restrictions, and would give Texas wineries the flexibility to recover some of the costs in providing samples of the wines produced at the winery to the growing number of people touring Texas wineries. PURPOSE As proposed, H.B. 3176 would allow for the holder of a winery permit to conduct wine samplings and tastings on the permitted premises and collect a fee for the samplings. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 16.01, Alcoholic Beverage Code, to allow the holder of a winery permit to dispense wine for consumption on the premises of the winery under Section 16.07, Alcoholic Beverage Code. SECTION 2. Amends Chapter 16, Alcoholic Beverage Code, by adding Section 16.07: (a) to allow the holder of a winery permit to conduct wine samplings and tastings on the permitted premises and collect a fee for the wine sampling (b) to restrict advertising of the samplings only by on-site communications or by direct mail (c) to restrict the dispensing of samples to the holder of the permit or the holder's authorized agent or employees (d)(1) to allow an authorized person to serve a person more than one sample (d)(2) to forbid serving samples to a minor or an obviously intoxicated person (e) to not allow a person receiving a sample to remove the sample from the permitted premises (f)(1) forbidding the holder of the winery permit from being a holder of a permit authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption (f)(2) not considered to have received any revenue from the on-premises sale of alcoholic beverages. SECTION 3. Effective date: September 1, 1997. SECTION 4. Emergency clause.