A search for "Italian Swiss Colony" + Florida gets a connection at Italian Swiss Colony, Florida which does indicate a "Florida presence." Perhaps this is what Guest was looking for.

If a local distributer cannot be found, it may be of interest that a Wine Business Monthly article in May 2003, that announced the "legalizing" of direct to consumer wine shipment in Virginia, noted:

"The Coalition for Free Trade is assisting winery and consumer plaintiffs with five additional lawsuits, challenging outright bans on interstate wine direct shipments into New York, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Michigan."

At least as of 2003, mail order purchase was not allowed in Florida. At that time only 23(?) states did allow shipments to individuals. I didn't find a current listing of which do/which don't.

An article at WINE WORLD ESTATES includes that in the 1990s:

"In the United States, wine was distributed in a "three-tier" distribution network. Most wineries sold their products to distributors, who typically sold dozens to hundreds of individual wine brands, as well as distilled spirits, beer, and non-alcoholic beverages to retail liquor and food stores and for consumption "on-premise" in restaurants and hotels. A distributor generally had the right to sell a brand within a specific geographic area and typically employed a sales staff, which serviced all classes of retail outlets. Larger wineries with multi-brand product portfolios would constitute a large percentage of a distributor's sales, generally employ a large sales staff, and have a competitive advantage at the distribution level."

(Note that "Wine World Estates" was a "corporate name" for the wine distributorship owned by Nestlé until sometime ca. 1995. It's not clear from this article whether it still remains with Nestlé. Corporate functions under this name probably centered on distributing and marketing numerous "brand labels.")

If there is in fact a difficulty getting a particular wine in a particular area, the above marketing structure is the most likely explanation. Distribution to retailers is controlled by distrubutors who have assigned regions, and who largely are given "monopoly control" of their region(s). Since the distributor may handle hundreds of wines, it's common practice for them to "drop" individual brands/varieties that don't maintain "market share," unless the item has an extremely high markup as might be the case for some ultra-premium (> $60 US/bottle?) wines. Retailers cannot sell what the distributors choose not to deliver.

In many similarly stuctured markets, the "drop point" may be as high as 10% of the group of "competing lines." Carried to it's extreme – as is not too unlikely – in a few years "cheap to moderate priced wines" will come only in "red" and "white," both will be made from cranberries, with artificial flavorings, "boosted" by methanol tailings from our surging alternate fuel industry. The "white" will be bleached, and the "red" will use "red dye No XXX" with an appropriate warning on the label.



1st-for-wine has an extensive list of links to info about Italian Swiss Colony wines available on the web; but I didn't see anything relating to retail sales in Florida. Additional info perhaps at wine devine.

The "last?" resort is to ask a retailer if it can be ordered for you.

John