Wine walk fundraisers won’t hold much appeal for a drunkard.\u00a0 Unless you really want to support whatever cause is being sponsored, or are dragged to one by a female companion, there is little to be gained in attending.\u00a0 Still, I think it’s important to show solidarity with those whose wine walks are arbitrarily being taken away.<\/p>\n
At a wine walk you buy a ticket in advance ($30 seems about average) with the money going to some worthy cause.\u00a0 The day of the event you might be given a commemorative wine glass.\u00a0 You also get a map of a dozen or so businesses within walking distance that will offer you some wine.\u00a0 Not a full pour, just a sip, perhaps one ounce.\u00a0 By the end of the walk you’ll have consumed about two glasses of wine, a meager amount, but then drinking is not the point of these things.\u00a0 The point is to raise funds and to get walkers into local businesses they might otherwise never visit.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, these\u00a0useful events have just been declared illegal in Wisconsin by the state’s Department of Revenue.\u00a0 It seems that each individual participating business would need its own license to pour wine to visitors, as well as comply with the health regulations that govern restaurants.\u00a0 As a result the city of Reedsburg, Wisconsin, whose annual wine walk raises funds for neighborhood revitalization, just cancelled its event<\/a>.\u00a0 Others will surely follow.<\/p>\n In fairness to the Department of Revenue, they did not go out looking for fundraisers to shut down.\u00a0 No brownshirts appeared to issue warnings or write tickets.\u00a0 Instead some anonymous inquirers asked for clarification of the legality of wine walks, and the Department printed new guidelines, as they were obliged to do.<\/p>\n