Dear Amazon.com, please save the online wine business!

Amazon.com has announced that they will enter the online wine business, the FT reports. For any who’ve ever tried to order wine online, you are certainly familiar with the numerous vexations associated with this trade, including crazy state-by-state shipping restrictions, incredibly high shipping charges, and opaque pricing. The FT notes some of the travails of Wine.com, the largest online wine retailer:

Wine.com has a long history of financial problems, illustrating the challenges of dealing with state restrictions on shipping wine shaped in the 1930s after the end of Prohibition. The retailer can ship wine to customers in only 26 states and is obliged to operate 10 different warehouses that buy from state-licensed wholesalers, increasing its costs.

A 2005 Supreme Court ruling has led to an easing of restrictions on shipping by vineyards.

But Tom Wark of the Speciality Wine Retailers Association said new legislation required by the ruling has led some states to tighten restrictions on out-of-state online retailers.

Some smaller e-commerce sites have been shipping wine to customers in defiance of state laws, taking advantage of the difficulty state regulators face in identifying unmarked small shipments to individuals.

IT’s chaos out there, as I realize every time I try to order a present for a friend or to save some money by buying wine from cheaper alternatives than the extortionist wine retailers in New York City. Thus far, I have had pretty good luck at Empire Wine (despite one corked bottle) and DrinkUpNY.