The National Retail Fairness Act advances.

The Tribune attempted to report on a bill gaining traction in the Legislature this morning that's quite interesting.

I say attempted, as the Tribune recently has been issuing stories that violate the cardinal rules of how newspaper articles are supposed to be written.  Classically, newspaper articles are supposed to summarize the entire story in the first and last paragraphs, and then discuss the meat of the story in between.  The Trib's been featuring some that are written with a narrative story in the front that's supposed to hook the reader for the rest of the story, but then they never manage to tell the story. It's frustrating.

Anyow, the National Retail Fairness Act is a bill gaining ground in the Legislature which would proposed to tax retail entities that have multi state operations and are taxed in other states. The bill's principal proponent, Jerry Obermueller, noted that the price of items sold in Wyoming don't actually vary from goods that are sold in states that tax such entities elsewhere.

That's a good observation.  No matter what Wyomingites, who generally oppose taxes, might think, large multi state entities that sell things everywhere have factored in the cost of items on a national level, and a tax imposed by Wyoming isn't going to change the price of such items sold here one bit. 

Obermueller is an accountant and has a close connection to education.  He sees the tax as a way to make up for the funding shortfall in education since the coal industry slowed down.  But it really is more than that.  A person has to ask why large retailers like Walmart, that have already certainly figured such taxes into their bottom line, are basically given a break at the expense of the Wyoming taxpayer, and more particularly the Wyoming retailer, by getting a pass in Wyoming when they don't need it and won't even really notice the Wyoming tax.

It's a cleaver approach and it'll be interesting to see where it goes.

2019

STATE OF WYOMING

19LSO-0320

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0220

National Retail Fairness Act.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Obermueller, Barlow, Blackburn, Burkhart, Connolly, Harshman, Lindholm, Nicholas, Schwartz, Sommers, Walters and Zwonitzer and Senator(s) Bebout, Case, Coe, Driskill, Kost, Nethercott, Pappas, Perkins, Rothfuss and Von Flatern

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to taxation; creating the National Retail Fairness Act; imposing an income tax on businesses as specified; providing for administration of the tax; providing penalties; authorizing rulemaking; and providing for effective dates.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 39‑12‑102 through 39‑12‑111 are created to read:

39‑12‑102.  Administration; confidentiality.

(a)  This chapter is known and may be cited as the "National Retail Fairness Act".

(b)  The administration of this chapter is vested in the department of revenue. The department shall administer this chapter in accordance with the multistate tax compact to the extent that the compact does not conflict with this chapter or Wyoming law.

(c)  The department shall, to the extent practical, obtain information from the federal internal revenue service to verify taxable income under this chapter. The department shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to efficiently secure the payment, collection and accounting for taxes imposed by this chapter.

(d)  Notices required to be mailed by the department under this chapter if mailed to the address shown on the records of the department shall be sufficient for the purposes of this chapter.

(e)  No state employee or other person who by his employment has knowledge of the business affairs of any person filing or required to file any tax returns under this chapter shall make known their contents in any manner or permit any person to have access to any returns or information contained therein except as provided by law. The department may also allow the following:

(i)  The delivery to the taxpayer or his legal representatives upon written request of a copy of any return or report in connection with the tax imposed by this chapter;

(ii)  The publication of statistics formatted to prevent the identification of particular returns or reports;

(iii)  The inspection by the attorney general of the state of the report or return of any person who brings an action against the state relating to the report or return, or against whom an action is contemplated or has been instituted;

(iv)  The introduction into evidence of any report or return or information therefrom in any administrative or court proceeding relating to the report or return and to which the person making the report or return is a party;

(v)  The furnishing of any information to the United States government and its territories, the District of Columbia, any state allowing similar privileges to the department or to the multistate tax commission for relay to tax officials of cooperating states. Information furnished shall be only for tax purposes;

(vi)  The inspection of tax returns and records by the state department of audit;

(vii)  The sharing of information with local governmental entities and other state agencies, provided a written request is made to the department and the governmental entity or agency demonstrates sufficient reason to obtain the information for official business purposes. Information furnished shall be used for official business purposes only.

(f)  The district court of the county in which violations of this subsection occur shall have jurisdiction over those violations.  No person shall:

(i)  Fail or refuse to make any return or payment required by this chapter;

(ii)  Make any false return or statement;

(iii)  Evade the payment of any tax due;

(iv)  Aid or abet another in any attempt to evade payment of the tax due;

(v)  Knowingly attest by signature to a false or fraudulent return.

39‑12‑103.  Imposition.

(a)  Taxable event. There is levied an income tax upon the taxable income of each taxpayer in this state as defined in W.S. 39‑12‑101(b)(iii).

(b)  Apportionment of taxable income shall be as follows:

(i)  If a taxpayer has no income from activity that is taxable outside of Wyoming, the taxpayer's entire taxable income shall be allocated to Wyoming;

(ii)  A taxpayer having income from activity that is taxable both within and without Wyoming shall apportion and allocate the taxable income as provided in this section;

(iii)  Income is taxable in another state if:

(A)  In that other state, the income is subject to a net income tax, a franchise tax measured by net income, a franchise tax for the privilege of doing business, a corporate stock tax or any similar tax; or

(B)  That other state has jurisdiction to subject the income to a net income tax regardless of whether, in fact, the state subjects the taxpayer to such tax.

(iv)  Taxable business income shall be apportioned to Wyoming by multiplying the income by a fraction, the numerator of which is the property factor as provided under subsection (c) of this section plus the payroll factor under subsection (d) of this section plus the sales factor under subsection (e) of this section, and the denominator of which is three (3).

(c)  The property factor shall be calculated as follows:

(i)  The property factor is a fraction, the numerator of which is the average value of the taxpayer's real and tangible personal property owned or rented and used in this state during the tax period and the denominator of which is the average value of all the taxpayer's real and tangible personal property owned or rented and used during the tax period;

(ii)  Property owned by the taxpayer shall be valued at its original cost. Property rented by the taxpayer is valued at eight (8) times the net annual rental rate. As used in this paragraph, "net annual rental rate" means the annual rental rate paid by the taxpayer less any annual rental rate received by the taxpayer from subrentals;

(iii)  The average value of property shall be determined by averaging the values at the beginning and ending of the tax period but the tax administrator may require the averaging of monthly values during the tax period if reasonably required to reflect properly the average value of the taxpayer's property.

(d)  The payroll factor shall be calculated as follows:

(i)  The payroll factor is a fraction, the numerator of which is the total amount paid in this state during the tax period by the taxpayer for compensation and the denominator of which is the total compensation paid everywhere during the tax period;

(ii)  Compensation is paid in this state if:

(A)  The individual's service is performed entirely within the state;

(B)  The individual's service is performed both inside and outside the state, but the service performed outside the state is incidental to the individual's service within this state; or

(C)  Some of the individual's service is performed in the state and the base of operations:

(I)  For the service or, if there is no base of operations, the place from which the service is directed or controlled is in the state; or

(II)  Or the place from which the service is directed or controlled is not in any state in which some part of the service is performed, but the individual's residence is in this state.

(e)  The sales factor shall be calculated as follows:

(i)  The sales factor is a fraction, the numerator of which is the total sales of the taxpayer in this state during the tax period, and the denominator of which is the total sales of the taxpayer everywhere during the tax period;

(ii)  Sales of tangible personal property are in this state if the property is:

(A)  Delivered or shipped to a purchaser within this state regardless of the f.o.b. shipping point or other conditions of the sale; or

(B)  Shipped from an office, store, warehouse, factory or other place of storage in this state and the taxpayer is not taxable in the state of the purchaser.

(iii)  Sales, other than sales of tangible personal property, are in this state if the income producing activity is performed:

(A)  In this state; or

(B)  Both in and outside this state and a greater proportion of the income producing activity is performed in this state than in any other state, based on costs of performance.

(f)  The department may require taxpayers to provide additional information and documentation related to apportionment, allocation of income and the property factor, payroll factor and sales factor to support an income tax return under this chapter.

39‑12‑104.  Taxation rate.

There is levied and shall be paid by the taxpayer a tax on that portion of adjusted federal taxable income of the taxpayer that is apportioned to Wyoming at a rate of seven percent (7%).

39‑12‑105.  Exemptions.

There are no specific applicable provisions for exemptions for this chapter.

39‑12‑106.  Licenses and permits.

There are no specific applicable provisions for licenses and permits for this chapter.

39‑12‑107.  Compliance; collection procedures.

(a)  Returns and reports. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, each taxpayer shall report their total taxable income and the portion of the income that is apportioned to Wyoming as provided in W.S. 39‑12‑103 to the department not more than thirty (30) days after the date the taxpayer is required to file a federal income tax return under the provisions of the Internal Revenue Code including any extensions authorized for filing of the federal income tax return.

(b)  Payment. Any taxpayer owing a tax under this chapter shall pay the tax once each year at the same time the report under subsection (a) is provided. The tax shall be collected by the department.

(c)  Timelines. There are no specific applicable provisions for timelines for this chapter.

39‑12‑108.  Enforcement.

(a)  Audits. To assess credits and deficiencies against taxpayers, the department is authorized to rely on final audit findings made by the department of audit, taxpayer information or information reported by the taxpayer to the internal revenue service or to the department of revenue subject to the following conditions:

(i)  Audits shall commence when the taxpayer receives written notice of the engagement of the audit. The issuance of the written notice of the audit shall toll the statute of limitations provided in W.S. 39‑12‑110 for the audit period specified in this subsection;

(ii)  After receiving notice of an audit under this subsection, the taxpayer shall preserve all records and books necessary to determine the amount of tax due for the time period that is being audited;

(iii)  Except as otherwise provided in this paragraph, audits shall encompass a time period not to exceed three (3) years immediately preceding the reporting period when the audit is engaged. The three (3) year limit shall not apply to an audit if there is evidence of gross negligence or intent to evade by the taxpayer in reporting or remitting taxes for the reporting period being audited;

(iv)  If a taxpayer is not willing or able to produce adequate records to demonstrate taxes due, the department or the department of audit may project taxes based on the best information available;

(v)  The department of audit may contract with or employ auditors or other technical assistance necessary to determine whether the taxes imposed by this chapter have been properly reported and paid;

(vi)  Audits under this subsection are subject to the authority and procedures provided in W.S. 9‑2‑2003.

(b)  Interest. The following shall apply:

(i)  Interest at an annual rate equal to the average prime interest as determined by the state treasurer during the preceding fiscal year, plus four percent (4%), shall be added to all delinquent taxes under this chapter. To determine the average prime interest rate, the state treasurer shall average the prime interest for at least seventy‑five percent (75%) of the thirty (30) largest banks in the United States.  The interest rate on delinquent taxes shall be adjusted on January 1 of each year following the year in which the taxes first became delinquent. In no instance shall the delinquent interest rate be less than twelve percent (12%) nor greater than eighteen percent (18%);

(ii)  The department may credit or waive interest imposed by this subsection as part of a settlement or for any other good cause.

(c)  Penalties. The following shall apply:

(i)  If any part of a deficiency is due to negligence or intentional disregard of rules and regulations but without intent to defraud there shall be added a penalty of ten percent (10%) of the amount of the deficiency plus interest as provided by paragraph (b)(i) of this section. The taxes, penalty and interest shall be paid by the taxpayer within ten (10) days after notice and demand is made by the department;

(ii)  If any part of the deficiency is due to fraud with intent to evade there shall be added a penalty of twenty‑five percent (25%) of the amount of the deficiency plus interest as provided by paragraph (b)(i) of this section. The taxes, penalty and interest shall be paid by the taxpayer within ten (10) days after notice and demand is made by the department;

(iii)  Any person who files a false or fraudulent return is subject to the provisions of W.S. 6‑5‑303;

(iv)  Any person who violates any provision of this chapter for which there are no specific penalties is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000.00). Each violation is a separate offense;

(v)  If a taxpayer fails to file a return as required by this chapter, the department shall give written notice by mail to the taxpayer to file a return on or before the last day of the month following the notice of delinquency. If a taxpayer then fails to file a return the department shall make a return from the best information available which will be prima facie correct and the tax due therein is a deficiency and subject to penalties and interest as provided by this chapter;

(vi)  The department may credit or waive penalties imposed by this subsection as part of a settlement or for any other good cause.

(d)  Liens. The following shall apply:

(i)  Any tax due under this chapter constitutes a debt to the state from the taxpayer, and is a lien from the date the tax is due on all the real and personal property of the taxpayer. Notice of the lien shall be filed with the county clerk of the county in which the taxpayer resides or conducts business. The lien does not have preference over preexisting secured indebtedness but shall have priority from and after the date of filing or recording. The department shall cancel lien statements within sixty (60) days after taxes due are paid or collected. No other action by the department is required to perfect a lien under this paragraph regardless of the type of property involved.

(e)  Tax sales. The following shall apply:

(i)  The tax due together with interest, penalties and costs may be collected by appropriate judicial proceedings or the department, with board approval, or its representative, may seize and sell at public auction so much of the taxpayer's property as will pay all the tax then due plus interest, penalties and costs. Notice of the auction must be published for four (4) weeks in a newspaper published in the resident county of the taxpayer or the county in which the majority of the property is located.

39‑12‑109.  Taxpayer remedies.

(a)  Interpretation requests. A taxpayer may request and the department shall provide written interpretations of these statutes and rules adopted by the department. When requesting an interpretation, a taxpayer shall set forth the facts and circumstances pertinent to the issue. If the department deems the facts and circumstances provided to be insufficient, it may request additional information. A taxpayer may act in reliance upon a written interpretation through the end of the calendar year in which the interpretation was issued, or until revoked by the department, whichever occurs last if the pertinent facts and circumstances were substantially correct and fully disclosed.

(b)  Appeals. Except as provided by this subsection, no person aggrieved by the payment of the taxes, penalty and interest imposed by this chapter may appeal a decision of the state board of equalization until all taxes, penalty and interest have been paid. For good cause shown, the court to which the decision of the board is appealed may stay enforcement of the tax during the pendency of the appeal. The court's stay of enforcement shall not affect the accruing of interest upon any assessment and levy.

(c)  Refunds. The following shall apply:

(i)  Any tax, penalty or interest which has been erroneously paid, computed or remitted to the department by a taxpayer shall either be credited against any subsequent tax liability of the taxpayer or refunded. No credit or refund shall be allowed after three (3) years from the date of overpayment. The receipt of a claim for a refund by the department shall toll the statute of limitations under W.S. 39‑12‑110. All refund requests received by the department shall be approved or denied within ninety (90) days of receipt. Any refund or credit erroneously made or allowed may be recovered in an action brought by the attorney general in any court of competent jurisdiction.

(d)  Credits. The following shall apply:

(i)  Each taxpayer is entitled to a credit against tax liability under this chapter for all excise, sales, use, severance and ad valorem taxes paid in the taxable year by the same taxpayer to any taxing authority in Wyoming. No credit shall be allowed for any tax collected or remitted by the taxpayer on behalf of another person.  The taxpayer shall report the credit to the department on the return filed under W.S. 39‑12‑107. The department may require supporting documentation on the credit claimed under this paragraph. In no case shall any refund be due or payable if the amount of the credit claimed by any taxpayer under this paragraph exceeds the amount of tax due under this chapter. False claims are punishable as provided by W.S. 6‑5‑303;

(ii)  The taxpayer is entitled to receive an offsetting credit for any overpaid tax identified by an audit that is within the scope of the audit period, without regard to the limitation period for requesting refunds.

(e)  Redemption. There are no specific applicable provisions for redemption for this chapter.

(f)  Escrow. There are no specific applicable provisions for escrow for this chapter.

39‑12‑110.  Statute of limitations.

(a)  Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, no credit or refund shall be allowed after three (3) years from the date of overpayment. The receipt of a claim for a refund by the department shall toll the statute of limitations.

(b)  The department may bring an action to recover any delinquent taxes, penalty or interest in any appropriate court within three (3) years following the delinquency. In the case of an assessment created by an audit, the delinquency period is deemed to start thirty (30) days after the date the assessment letter is sent. Any tax penalty and interest related to the audit assessment shall be calculated from the filing period during which the deficiency occurred. In any such action a certificate by the department is prima facie evidence of the amount due.

39‑12‑111.  Distribution.

Revenues collected under W.S. 39‑12‑104 during each fiscal year shall be recognized as revenue during that fiscal year for accounting purposes. For all revenue collected by the department under W.S. 39‑12‑104 the department shall credit one hundred percent (100%) to the school foundation program account.

Section 2.  W.S. 39‑12‑101 is amended to read:

39‑12‑101.  Preemption by state; definitions.

(a)  The state of Wyoming does hereby preempt for itself the field of imposing and levying income taxes, earning taxes, or any other form of tax based on wages or other income and no county, city, town or other political subdivision shall have the right to impose, levy or collect such taxes except as provided in this chapter.

(b)  As used in this chapter:

(i)  "Tax year" means the taxable year used by the taxpayer for purposes of the federal income tax;

(ii)  "Taxable income" means the net taxable income reported by the taxpayer to the Internal Revenue Service on federal form 1120, adjusted to remove any deductions taken for sales, use and ad valorem taxes paid in the taxable year by the same taxpayer to any taxing authority in Wyoming;

(iii)  "Taxpayer" means any person who:

(A)  Has taxable income earned in Wyoming;

(B)  Is a vendor with a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) classification in the sector of retail trade, sector 44 or 45 or in the sector of accommodation and food services, sector 72.  This subparagraph includes a person who is a franchisor that collects franchise fees in Wyoming from a vendor in NAICS sector 44, 45 or 72; and

(C)  Files or is required to file federal form 1120 to the internal revenue service if the corporation or the affiliated group as defined in 26 U.S.C. § 1504 has more than one hundred (100) shareholders unless the person makes an election as an unincorporated entity.

Section 3.  The department of revenue shall adopt rules under W.S. 39‑11‑102 as necessary to begin collection of the community impact tax created by this act for tax years beginning in tax year 2020.

Section 4.

(a)  Section 3 of this act is effective immediately upon completion of all acts necessary for a bill to become law as provided by Article 4, Section 8 of the Wyoming Constitution.

(b)  Except as otherwise provided in subsection (a) of this section, this act is effective January 1, 2020.

(END)

The proposal to tax wind energy must not be going anywhere in the Legislature as

. . . some legislators are backing a bill to take it to the public by way of a ballot initiative.

Interestingly some of those backing that effort, which will be difficult to pass as passing ballot initiatives in Wyoming is exceedingly difficult, are among the most conservative in the Legislature.  The loss of the scenic view caused by the wind turbines is cited a a reason for the tax, but I have to think it's primary based on other concerns.

Some Gave All: Blog Mirror: A Wyoming ranch hand went missing am...

Some Gave All: Blog Mirror: A Wyoming ranch hand went missing am...:

Blog Mirror: A Wyoming ranch hand went missing amid one of the great disasters of U.S. Army history igniting a decades long effort to find him.

A remarkable story from the Casper Star Tribune:

A Wyoming ranch hand went missing amid one of the great disasters of U.S. Army history igniting a decades long effort to find him.

Maybe, maybe not, but the amazing thing is how seriously her proposals are taken given her newness to the job

Alexandria Oscasio-Cortez, that is.

The Crippling Cost of 70% Tax Rates

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s proposal would smother investment and innovation, leaving America poorer

On the Wall Street Journal's comments, emphasized by its headline, that's actually fairly debatable.  I.e, you can debate it fairly.  The upper marginal tax rate has been that high, and even higher, before, and the economy kept on keeping on, but at the same time, reducing it really did seem to spur investment.

But for this post, the amazing thing is that such an inexperienced, in every fashion, individual is rapidly becoming the star of the Democratic sky, and thereby an important figure in contemporary politics.  Indeed, some right wing gadflys of the Internet type absolutely freak out over everything she says.  For example, she recently made the argument that fighting climate change in her view requires an effort comparable to that which the nation invested in World War Two.  Whether you agree with her or not, it's clear what she was saying, but some twitter types are trying to suggest she didn't know we had a Second World War, which is obviously not what she stated at all.

All of this suggests that for whatever reason, perhaps because she's new and novel, or perhaps for some other reason, she's moved from being an unlikely candidate to a rising Democratic star. Perhaps temporarily. . . or perhaps Pelosi better start looking for rooms at Ancient Great Society Rest Home.  

Quite a surprising development really.

Some Gave All: Memorial to French War Dead. Gandelu France

Some Gave All: Memorial to French War Dead. Gandelu France:

Memorial to French War Dead. Gandelu France

This memorial in Gandelu, France has been kept current following its original dedication to World War One's lost soldiers.  Those lost in World War Two, the French Indo-China War, and the Algerian War were later added.

MKTH Photographs.

Voter cross over bill bites the dust. . sort of.

Just as we predicted, we might note.

This is the bill in its original form, which would have prevented voters from switching parties a certain number of days prior to the primary election.  An amended version of the bill, which would create an open non partisan primary, lives on, providing a lesson about those starting wars, perhaps, never knowing where they might end, although we predict that one will fail as well.

The Year in Review | Catholic Answers (Mid Week At Work) Distributism.

The Year in Review | Catholic Answers

Really fascinating economic discussion starting at 20:00.

I've been posting some topics on Distributism, all of which recently have to deal with alcohol oddly enough (and which oddly enough commenced on the centennial of the passage of the 18th Amendment). 

Distributism is an economic theory, or point of view, or rather both, that gets limited circulation in the modern world, but in the podcast linked in above, you can get a good feel for some of its concerns.  The comment about Capitalism and Socialism  having the same point of view is classically Distributist, and the comment about our Capitalistic society not really having a free market is a fairly pronounced and deep Distributist view.

Capitalism has been so triumphant in the post Jimmy Carter era that few even question anything about it, and those who tend to tend to stumble in the dark coming up with nonsense.  The recent flirtation on the hard left with the pig slop of Socialism is a good example. Socialism doesn't address the ills of Capitalism, it's actually a reflection of the same impulses that tend to drive some Capitalistic thought written large, and it therefore compounds the problems it supposedly seeks to address.

But that doesn't mean that there aren't problems.

A lot of my very thoughtful and conservative friends will point out that the post World War Two Capitalistic triumph has raised many people out of poverty.  Indeed, as we posted here the other day, we live in the first era in human history in which the vast, vast majority of people don't live in poverty from birth until death.  That we don't appreciate that is, in part, because we ourselves live in a society that had been Capitalistic from its onset and it saw the benefits of that exceedingly early.

But that doesn't mean that there aren't problems to be addressed.  And indeed, a lot of people have that increasing sense.  It isn't that Capitalism, in the form in which we have it (Corporate Capitalism), hasn't been enormously successful, it's rather that its hardcore emphasis on cheap goods and efficiency may have passed over a point at which it's now causing harm.

Agrarian philosopher Wendell Berry wrote an essay once entitled "What are people for?".  Agrarianism and Distributism are not the same thing, but it is the case that all agrarians are distributist.  That question is the ultimate one in any economic theory.  And once there isn't a decent answer, there's a problem.  That question is is posed in a way in this link, and the answer of what the focus ought to be is noted as well.

Isn't it rather odd that a major television network could have a series about a contemporary Marine in the 1960s. . .

Marines at the Battle of Hue, 1968.

and never mention the Vietnam War even once?

Like, even once?

But then maybe Gomer Pyle, USMC, in Vietnam, just ins't funny.

Oh oh. . . Federal Courts, Running Out of Money, Brace for Shutdown’s Pain

This isn't good:

Federal Courts, Running Out of Money, Brace for Shutdown’s Pain

I keep hearing or reading comments about people not noticing the shutdown, which I suppose most people don't.

At least at first.

But sooner or later, as this goes on and on, it's impossible not to be impacted somehow.  And at the point where the courts have to adjust. . .well that's a society wide impact.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Product Ever? Hey, what about whiskey (and other distilled beverages)?. Wait a minute, In Vino locorum subsidiarietatis Veritas?

There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
"They have no wine."
And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servers,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
"Fill the jars with water."
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
"Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.

John, Chapter 2.*

Okay, we've done beer, and we've done whiskey, what about wine.

Lex Anteinternet: Lex Anteinternet: Is Beer the Most Distributist Pr...: A bottle of "double cask" Wyoming Whiskey, which is Wyoming Whiskey that's also been partially aged in a sherry cask. ...

 

And no, we're not grasping for those lyrics from the famous John Lee Hooker song.

Frankly, I know nothing about wine.

I've always known that, but it really occurred to me after I decided to add this post, following my one on beer and whiskey.

Indeed, I pondered why that might be.  

My parents rarely drank wine, but for that matter my father only bought beer during the summer and while we often had a bottle of Canadian Whiskey on hand, it usually lasted an eternity.  Indeed, when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was considered to be a social obligation to have whiskey on hand for social occasions.  My folks weren't huge entertainers (they were definitely better than we are here however), and that's about the only time the whiskey was ever brought out.  We didn't stock more than one kind and for whatever reason, the only kind of whiskey my father ever bought was Canadian Lord Calvert.  I supposed that this might be because my mother was Canadian, but as she never ever drank it, that supposition might be way, way, off the mark.

One of my aunts and uncles liked Scotch, and liked Cutty Sark for that matter.  Asking my father about it, he told me that it tasted like paint thinner, and I have to agree.  And not just about Cutty Sark, but all Scotch Whiskey.

About the only wine my parents ever bought was Mogan David, which based upon their website must have been Mogan David Concord.  I feel bad, quite frankly, for the Mogan David company, because back at that time it was simply a fairly cheap and rather obviously Kosher table wine.  The purple wine came with a Star of David emblazoned upon it.  This was all prior to the introduction of tehir horrifying fortified "pop" wines which came out under the MD 20/20 name, and which acquired the nickname "Mad Dog 20/20".  I frankly think that their introduction of that brand, while it may have been a marketing mistake, was a mistake.  I'm surprised to learn that it still exists, actually.

Anyhow, when I was a kid, on very rare occasion, my father would buy Mogan David.  I'm not sure why.  It always came in big gallon sized bottles, and it lasted forever.  I haven't had it for years and years, and indeed not since I was young, probably ten years old or younger, and I'd get a small glass when they bought it.  As it isn't the kind of drink you serve to guests, and as they so rarely bought it, and quit buying it at some point, I don't know what the thought was.

Anyhow, when growing up and still young, "wine" to me meant Mogan David.

When I was in my very early teens my mother, for some still unknown reason, took a wine making class at the local community college and she accordingly started making wine as a hobby.  Simply taking up wine making was really odd for a person who basically didn't drink and who was living in a family that nearly didn't, so I don't know what she was thinking.  It was a mistake all the way around for a variety of reasons.

For one reason, she was a horrible cook and at least based upon her wine making experiment, being a bad cook equates with being a bad vintner.  Her wine was awful.  She made  most of it from berries that she harvested from where our garden was located and for years and years I assumed thereafter that the berries must have been basically unpalatable.  Later on, I found they weren't, when other people made other things out of them. Go figure.

Fortunately, after stinking up the house with the fermentation process for awhile, she gave it up.  Pretty bad stuff.

I don't know if that early experience left me tainted on wine in general.  I'd had beer obviously so apparently that didn't carry over.  As an adult I've been exposed to wine a lot more, but I've picked up a very limited taste for it.  Basically, I like Chianti and buy it on odd occasion.  I don't like any other wine much unless they are very close to Chianti.  Some of the wines that people really like I absolutely detest.   Most of them actually.  Dry Champagne I like, but it's not like you are going to drink gallons of that unless you are Winston Churchill.

So my knowledge on wine is super limited and will stay that way.

Anyhow, as I did beers and whiskey, and as I'm looking at this from a Distributist and local agricultural level, and as I know there are a couple of wineries in the state, I decided to complete the Tour d'alcohol with that.

Now, going into that I'll note that I'm very skeptical about the ability of Wyoming to produce any wine in the first place, unless it's made out of the wild stuff that my mom used, and I'd discourage that.  While my mother, in her brief vintner stage decided to plant a couple of Concorde grape vines over my objection (she never had a grasp on agricultural yield and she couldn't accept that a couple of vines weren't going to yield adequate grapes for fermenting, and she didn't accept that the harsh weather here wasn't conducive to grapes), Wyoming doesn't really have the climate for growing grapes.

Indeed, grapes are sufficiently susceptible to climate that you can actually tell what the climate of a past era was like based on them.  The line basically north of the Rhine in Europe and west the English Channel are the beer lines, basically (with some blending of the two) as you can grow grains north and west of there, but not grapes, usually.  When you can grow grapes in those regions, something odd is going on.  We know, for example, that there was a period when England produced a lot of wine.  It was during the Medieval Climatic Optimum.  You can't grow them there now.  Likewise, during the same era Newfoundland had abundant wild grapes.  It doesn't now.  There's never been a time when you couldn't grow grapes in France, Spain, Italy, Greece and North Africa, which is why all those areas have been wine regions (the modern exception being North Africa but only because of Islam).

So you can't do much with that here.

Apparently you can do a little,  however.

Before I go on, there's one additional thing I should mention that I recently learned.  I've always known that there are wines that are attributed to regions that surprise me, but I didn't realize that simply labeling wine is a big deal.  I had no idea.  Apparently in California, for example, a lot of wine labels are basically that.  Some big mega winery produces all kinds of wine and ships it out under lots of labels under contract.  People buying the label tend to think that a winery by that name is produced there, but nope, it may be just a label.

Indeed, a Benedictine Monk I know told me that the wine sold under the label of his home abbey was not produced there, but in another state and sold under the abbey's name via contract.  He was careful to note that as the abbey did in fact produce other things, but not wine.  The abbey was located in the far north so I would have really wondered about how the accomplished producing wine but, nope, they didn't do it.

That's a bit of a shame really as both wine and beer were once widely produced by monastic holy orders and for practical reasons.  Somehow, as we've progressed through the 20th Century and became more and more hedonistic and amoral we none the less found more in more in the way of societal puritanism to apply to people otherwise living moral lives.  Odd.  And its further misguided in that the Puritans themselves were not teetotalers at all.

Well, anyhow, I've come to know something about beer and whiskey but I remain really ignorant on wine.

So, anyhow, back to wine and Wyoming.

There are, surprisingly, a few Wyoming wineries.

The claimed first winery in Wyoming was Table Mountain Winery.  It interestingly was the brainchild of a UW student from a southeastern Wyoming farming family who researched the topic while a student and went on to apply what he learned, receiving a grant in the process.

And its a true winery.  A ten acre vineyard supplies the grapes for seven different wines which, after looking at their website, I realized that I have in fact seen in the stores.  I haven't tried it, but once again, this is a Distributist or Agrarian triumph, as its amazingly all local and they've been at it for nearly twenty years now.

I should note, before I move on, that the "claimed" item above is because well prior to this time, when I was a student in Laramie in the 1980s, there was some sort of winery in one of the small towns up in the mountains west of Laramie.  This was the Hiney Winery.  I know nothing about it other than that it advertised on radio a lot, back in the days when people, including me, listed to their car radios.  I recall it as their kitschy advertisements always closed out with the line "buy a little Hiney" or something like that, featuring that obvious double entendre.  I never tried it, and have no idea how it was produced.  Laramie is already 7,000 feet in elevation and the towns in the mountains were even higher than that, so I'd be amazed if the grapes were produced locally.

Moving on, Cody Wyoming has a Buffalo Jump Winery.  Knowing what a buffalo jump is, I wonder about the name, but the tourist town has a winery so called.  The last time I was in Cody I noticed it or at least an outlet selling the wines, but I didn't stop in (I'm obviously a very poor candidate for wine tourism).  Their website indicates that the grapes are from California, Oregon and Washington, and they have a second outlet in Arizona.  So they're producing wine, but they're acquiring the grapes. The owners also indicate that they're in buffalo ranching, and indeed they were in that prior to being vintners.

There's also a Jackson Hole Winery, making Jackson Hole the location of at least two breweries and one distillery, or perhaps two distilleries if we include nearby Driggs Idaho in the mix.  Their website indicates that they produce 2,500 cases of wine per year and a large percentage of the grapes are from a farm owned by the vintner, which is a family operation.  However, the vineyards are in the Sonoma region and other grapes are acquired via partnerships and business arrangements. As Jackson Hole is over 6,000 feet high, the lack of local grapes isn't surprising. They do produce the wine themselves.

Weston Wineries, which apparently also produces liqueurs, is another Wyoming winery that relies upon importing the constituents from other states, in this case grape juices.  Indeed, their website specifically notes that they do that and that its common in the industry, which it truly is.  In looking it up, I realized that it too is something I've seen in the stores but never tried.

A really unique winery is found in Gillette Wyoming and was mentioned here the other day in the context of distilleries, that being Big Lost Meadery.  As it name indicates, it specializes in mead.

I'll be frank.  I can't stand mead so I'm not going to try this product.

Most people have never tried mead and are only familiar with it, if they are at all, from stories about Vikings quaffing down buckets of mead. Given that, we imagine it in our minds being something like Russian Imperial Stout or something.  It's not like that at all.

Mead is made from honey.

That's right, it's made from honey.

Now, I'll confess that my experiences with mead are quite limited.  When I was 19 years old, and hence old enough to first drink in Wyoming (the drinking age was then 19), I bought a bottle of mead due to the Viking legends.  It was awful.   I likely didn't make it past the first glass before I tossed the bottle out.

Recently I've had mead again, but for an odd reason.

Up at the start of this entry I noted that my mother tried her hand at wine making after taking a class at the local community college.  About a year or so ago my son, in college, decided to try it too.  His efforts were less reliant on products of the wild, indeed they weren't at all reliant on it, and he gave it up after an initial effort.  Nonetheless, a friend of his wanted to try mead and so they recently made a batch.

Their mead wasn't nearly as bad as the mead that I had when I was young, and I note that there's "dry" mead that's less sweet.  His friend and his family were really impressed with it.  While I was much less unimpressed with it than with the stuff I had years ago, I'm not going to take it up.

Which means that I'm not going to try Big Lost Meadery's product.  It may be great, if you like mead, but as I don't, I'm not going to bother.

Based on their website, Big Lost (which also brews beer) plays a bit with the manly  man image of mead. But the fact that the Norse and other northern Europeans drank it at one time actually tells me something else.

Grapes don't grow in the far north but there are plenty of bees up there, and bees make honey.  The fact that the early Scandinavians made mead (and they weren't the only ones by any means) tells me that if people figure out how to make ferment something, they'll ferment anything available.  Honey was available.  As soon as beer became available, it's worth noting, the Norsemen switched to that.**

And that about covers it for Wyoming's wine. 

Except for the homemade stuff, of course.

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*St. John covers here, of course, Jesus' first public miracle, the changing of water into wine at the Wedding Feast at Cana.

The entire story is an interesting one, and not simply (but of course principally) because it was Jesus' first public miracle.  Like most of the Bible, the story is multi dimensional in all sorts of ways.  One thing we can take from here, from a historical prospective, is the practices that pertained to wine at the time.

Very clearly, then as now, there were various grades of wine.  We learn from this story that the wine that Christ created from the water was of superb quality.  The steward was amazed that the hosts had saved the best wine for last, a practice that woudl be the reverse of what we'd expect then and now. 

Also, based upon the common size of water vessels at the time, this involved a very large quantity of wine. 

That's interesting not only because it tells us of the commonality of wine at the time. . .nobody was shocked that there was a lot of wine, but running out of wine would have been a disaster for the hosts, but also because it touches on a theological point, that being that the drink that was brought into the room at the Last Supper was wine, not "grape juice", as some take great straining strides to maintain.

**I've referenced before, but the novel Krisin Lavransdottir, while a novel, gives a really good account of daily life in Medieval Norway including the drinking habits of Norwegians at that time.  Citing a novel for factual information is always hazardous, but its so well researched I feel it can be relied upon for those details, and it makes it plain that a vast amount of beer and ale were consumed.  Mead is mentioned exactly once in the book.