The Virginia Senate approved legislation Monday to restore a measure of self-distribution to small Virginia farm wineries, but not before one senator cautioned the General Assembly will probably see the issue again.

Senate Bill 1413 sets up a nonprofit, nonstock corporation within the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to serve as a wholesale distributor for small farm wineries.

Wineries would be limited to distributing up to 3,000 cases of wine annually through the state. Anything above that would require a winery to use an independent, for-profit wholesaler.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, was filed as a response to a 2005 federal court ruling that the more than 2-decade-old practice of self-distribution by wineries was unconstitutional.

The court said self-distribution gave in-state wineries an unfair advantage because out-of-state vintners didn't have the same right.

SB 1413 would bring the state into the process, allowing it to serve as the wholesale distributor for these small wineries with a much lower markup than private-sector distributors.

The bill was approved by a unanimous, 39-0 vote, but Sen. John Watkins, R-Chesterfield County, said he thought the bill sets up a state-sponsored monopoly that could spur more court challenges.

-- Mason Adams