South Carolina now has a license built for small liquor makers.
Gov. Mark Sanford signed H.3452 today, according to legislative records. The act creates a micro-distillery license and takes effect immediately.
A micro-distillery, as the law defines it, distills, blends and bottles liquor stronger than 17% alcohol on its licensed premises and makes no more than 125,000 cases a year there. Its license costs $5,000 every two years. The same act raises the license tax on a full manufacturer’s license to $50,000 every two years, up from $1,000, according to the bill’s marked-up text.
The law also lets distillers offer tastings and sell bottles on site. Until now, state law barred a manufacturer from allowing drinking on its premises. Tastings and sales must come with a tour of the distillery, and samples are limited to half an ounce each and 1.5 ounces per person per day. Tastings and sales may run only from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and tastings can’t be held alongside restaurant food service.
Visitors may buy up to three 750-milliliter bottles a day, labeled “not for resale,” at prices close to what retail stores in the county charge. They can’t open the bottles on site.
The law says the sales and tastings are “expressly intended for the promotion of education regarding production of alcoholic liquors in the State and not to create competition between producers and retailers.”
The House passed the bill in February, and the Senate amended it in April. The House agreed to the Senate’s changes 99-0 on April 23.
In the Charleston area, Firefly Distillery is based at Irvin-House Vineyards on Wadmalaw Island, where it makes the Sweet Tea Vodka sold in South Carolina, The Post and Courier reported last October.
