DeSantis signs bill increasing size of wine bottles; claims success over recent legal wins

Saying it was another example of the state cutting unnecessary red tape and eliminating unwieldy regulations, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came to a wine shop in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday to sign legislation that will allow Floridians to purchase bottles of wine up to 15 liters in size.

Under current state law, wine distributors and manufacturers are allowed to sell wine to other distributors and manufacturers in containers of any size, but regular Floridians are prohibited from purchasing wine in containers larger than one gallon. Under the new law (HB 583), wine will be allowed for purchase up to 15 liters, which is almost four gallons, according to the legislation.

“Prior to signing this bill, a bottle like this was not able to be sold in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said, pointing toward larger sized bottles ranging from 6 to 15 liters. “We want our businesses to thrive, we want our consumers to be happy, and if that means that they want to buy and sell a big ‘ole bottle of wine like this, then by golly they’re going to be able to do that in the state of Florida, ” he said.

The new law “also allows Florida to be competitive with other states who are already selling wine in these larger quantities,” said Melanie Griffin, the secretary for the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. The law will be effective on July 1.

DeSantis also took the opportunity before a live audience and a group of reporters to crow about his administration’s success on some controversial decisions.

One involved a settlement announced Wednesday in the state’s legal battle with Walt Disney World which began when DeSantis’ decided to take over the governing district running the theme park after the entertainment giant opposed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act in 2022.

The other victory was when a three-judge federal panel on Wednesday ruled in DeSantis’ favor in a lawsuit that questioned the constitutionality of the congressional redistricting map that he personally drew up and that the Florida Legislature approved in 2022.  That map resulted in the Republicans representing 16 of the 27 congressional districts in 2020 to holding 20 of the 28 districts in the Florida delegation after the 2022 midterms (the state was awarded an additional congressional seat following the 2020 U.S. Census).

“If it wasn’t for Florida, we added four Republicans in 2022 – our congressional delegation – Democrats would have the House right now if it wasn’t for Florida,” he said. “That’s just a fact.”

But that congressional lead is shrinking. With the announcement last week that Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher will step down from his Congressional seat next month, Republicans will have just a one-seat majority.

DeSantis then sounded off as if he was still a presidential candidate.

“We’ve done I think everything that we can do in Florida to put points on the board… you look at Miami-Dade in ’22 there (where he was the first Republican governor to win the county, at 55%. Prior to 2022, Jeb Bush won Miami-Dade in 2002.).”

“So this state has moved I think in the direction that Republicans have wanted to see all states move and we’re really the model on how to get that done,” DeSantis said.

He then laid into GOP Republicans on Capitol Hill.

“All these guys ran saying, ‘we have so much debt. The government’s spent too much money.’ And then what have they done? They just turned around. They did a massive spending increase that’s going to add more to the debt. It’s not going to help with inflation. It’s funding all of [President Joe] Biden’s open-door border policies, so I think that’s bad in and of itself, but what happens is, when you govern in a way that’s contrary to how you campaigned and how you told the voters [what] you’re going to do, that creates this dissatisfaction. And I think that there’s a lot of that with Republican voters across the country right now.”