They argue that the laws make good social policy by reducing access by minors, ensuring state tax collection and providing consumers with a wide selection of products.
Retailers disagree, saying that allowing people to order wine in other states improves consumer choice and often saves money.
"This is a pretty clear-cut argument about economics," said Greg Taylor of Taylor & Norton Wine Merchants in Sonoma. "The wholesalers want to have an iron grip on sales."
What wholesalers charge for wine varies greatly by state, depending on competition and regulatory issues.
BevMo, for example, sells the highly regarded 1999 Dom Perignon champagne for $114.99 in its California stores and through its website. The same bubbly costs $134.99 at its Arizona stores.
"In many states the wholesalers are donating huge sums of political money to ensure that outside players are blocked from the market," said Keith Wollenberg, K&L's spokesman and Burgundy wine buyer.
In California, the nation's largest wine producer and the state with the least wine sales regulation, the Legislature in 2005 passed a law -- supported by distributors -- that prohibited Californians from purchasing wine from out-of-state retailers.
The state attorney general's office has put enforcement of the law on hold until the end of this year to give the Specialty Wine Retailers Assn. a chance to persuade lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow out-of-state retailers to ship into California.
"If we are unsuccessful it is entirely possible that Californians will be prohibited from purchasing wine from out-of-state retailers," said Wark of the retailers' group.
The wholesalers, who fought wineries in the Supreme Court case, want to maintain the "three-tier system" of alcohol distribution. This national patchwork of state legislation arose with the repeal of Prohibition. It dictates that wholesalers provide a legal separation between producers and retailers.
The intent was to prevent distillers and other alcohol beverage producers from owning or controlling bars and to ensure competition.
Such regulation created a middle tier of distributors that would buy alcoholic beverages from the producers and then sell them to bars, restaurants and retailers. That has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry.
For instance, Southern Wine & Spirits of America Inc., the nation's largest distributor, has more than $7 billion in annual sales.
