Hey Franchot, what about Md.’s wine laws?

I enjoyed reading the story about Comptroller Peter Franchot’s efforts to make headway in getting more craft beer to Maryland’s consumers (“Work of beer booster Peter Franchot’s task force coming to a head,” Nov. 9). Kudos for that.

But why be satisfied with just the good progress in the hops and malts department? We have a very large contingent of wine drinkers in this state who are unfortunately forced to buy wine at retail prices that line the pockets of wholesalers and distributors. Actually, I’m part of a growing group of wine buyers who drive the extra hour to Virginia and Delaware to buy wine at places like Trader Joe’s, Costco, and, well, Target. How ironic that in the same edition today, there was an article in the Taste section about how $5 wine is a big hit with Target customers. What a silly and useless article to run in a Baltimore newspaper.

So it’s great to be able to chug more craft beer around here, but I’m wishing we’d have more competitive retail wine options in Maryland. To this I propose a toast with a glass of Chateauneuf du Franchot.