COLOMBIA, SC (AP) – A California wine producer wants to bring a new $ 400 million bottling and storage center to South Carolina, but it is the company’s desire to also add some tasting rooms across the state that is delaying the Statehouse account.
Gallo Winery chose Chester County as the location to build its first center on the East Coast and said it hopes to hire 300 to 500 people. South Carolina offered traditional incentives to the place, but the winery also asked for tasting rooms.
The rooms would allow a group of 10 or more people to meet for about an hour and taste several different wines in quantities full of thimble. After tasting, people could buy wine if they liked it.
Retailers are against allowing the company to sell wine directly. Restaurants fear that the tasting rooms are unfair competition. Some senators heard it.
The Senate Judiciary Committee sent the bill to the Senate floor on Tuesday with some changes, including limiting three tasting rooms across the state instead of four, requiring the rooms to close at 5:30 pm and limiting the number of bottles that could be sold for six instead of 12.
Governor Henry McMaster said he supports the bill and urged lawmakers to act quickly before the company changes its mind.
Chester County is one of the poorest places in South Carolina, but it is also on Interstate 77 between Columbia and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Gallo said he likes the location because it also has access to railways and is not far from Charleston harbor.