Twitter caused a problem for local vintners and brewers in Sacramento when their tweets revealed where consumers could buy the spirits that they were pedaling at the Grape Escape, a popular wine tasting event in Northern California.
According to Fox40, many of the wine and beer producers mentioned SaveMart as the event venue in their tweets, which so happens to be a place where shoppers can purchase their products. That’s a no-no because of a mid-century law governing the event, which mandates that if you make it, you’re not allowed to tell people where to buy it.
“We don’t want the large manufacturer’s having undue influence on retailers,” explained Deputy Division Chief Michael Corson of the California Alcohol Control Board. Therefore, when the wineries and brewers mentioned SaveMart while promoting the Grape Escape in their tweets, they violated the rules.
“They’re not going down for a suspension, they’re not paying a fine. They’re just having it over their heads for a year, then it goes away,” said Corson. “During the investigation it came up that 75% of them, 30 of them, actually removed the name of the retailer from the tweets they did, or from their Facebook.”
The companies will be allowed to continue business as usual, providing that they have no further trouble within the next year.
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