I'm going to be honest here and say that while I do agree with some of the things Leslie Small said in her column,"State liquor laws not in good spirits" (Aug. 26), about Pennsylvania's attitude toward shipping wine within the state, I also find it rather insulting that she said: "Either make better wine or get out of the business; it's called capitalism" about in-state wineries.

The law she mentions that limits direct shipping abilities of smaller out-of-state wineries seems to be designed to help the smaller in-state wineries that in fact, do make good wine, but are out of the way. Most of the wine I drink isn't from a winery in another state, but from a local winery back at home.

I enjoy buying local wine because you actually get a chance to taste the wine prior to buying and you get a much more personal experience than ordering wine over the Internet.

After all, if you can't taste it online, how do you know that it tastes better than the wine produced by local wineries?

Holly Hetrick

senior-psychology and history