PA Wine Label Once the “17th Most Popular in the U.S.”


Remember those complaints last month that state-owned liquor stores were giving prime shelf space to the PLCB brand of Table Leaf wine? Well, during his testimony in a Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing yesterday, Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board member Robert Marcus said that Table Leaf, at one point, became the 17th-most-popular wine brand in the nation: “Our private label program is part of our ongoing program to give consumers more and better low cost choices and to simultaneously increase the money we return to the General Assembly,” Marcus said of Table Leaf. But that still angers privatization advocates, who wish the state would get out of the liquor business altogether. “I walked into my state store last week and was distressed to see that your TableLeaf wine was displayed right in the front, very predominantly,” State Sen. Pat Vance, a Republican, told Marcus. “I do have a problem with your competing with the private sector.” [Pennsylvania Independent]