“Wine lovers, wine sellers, winemakers and retail grocers gathered Monday on Capitol Hill to debate — again — whether Tennessee should relax its liquor laws and allow wine to be sold on grocery shelves and over the Internet. ‘Wine and food go together on the table and should go together in the store,’ said Jarron Springer, president of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association, who kicked off the three-hour hearing in a Senate hearing room packed wall to wall with lobbyists from both sides. Not so, countered Thad Cox, owner of Ashes Wine and Spirits in Knoxville, testifying on behalf of other small liquor retailers in the state. ‘If wine goes in the grocery stores, I guarantee you, each and every (mom-and-pop liquor store) in the state will have to sit down and make a decision about their staff, who they would have to lay off, or even whether they could keep their doors open,’ he said.” [editor’s note: Perhaps so, for cheapo, garden-variety domestics; most states with wine-at-grocery-store still also have liquor-stores offering specialty vintages & vineyards - SAT] (01/06/09)