Smaller wine, beer and spirits operations hope Biden’s executive order will make it easier to reach consumers

Last week, I summarized some of more than 450 public comments submitted to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, or TTB, on barriers to competition in the beer, wine and spirits industries. The dominant theme was that consolidation in the middle of the three-tier system — producer, distributor, retailer — is choking competition by making it difficult for small breweries, wineries and distilleries to get their products to market.