Kansas Wineries Must Stay Vigilant

By Owen Morris

Today is the first in what I imagine will be a sporadically updated series talking about the complicated and twisting alcohol laws of Kansas and Missouri.

Yesterday, I had a lengthy phone conversation with Michelle Meyer, owner of Holy-Field Winery in Basehor, Kansas. Meyer was one of the subjects of a The Pitch cover story a few years back, about how hard it is to operate a winery in the state of Kansas, with its outdated laws and a chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union in Topeka. I asked Meyers if anything had changed since the story ran and if the state is making any progress towards the 21st century.

Meyers said that in the past four years, Kansas hasn’t come as far as Missouri or some other states but at least most people in the state are trying to help her. She went on to explain that in 2006 Kansas finally changed its law so that Kansas wineries are allowed to ship to other states — one of the big causes of angst in the article. Kansas being Kansas though, the law had a catch.