I mentioned before that it was illegal to substitute one type of booze for another in a bottle. It is also illegal to refill a bottle.
It’s just a way for Texas to make sure that the booze being poured in a bar has been obtained properly. No stamp = illegal. Stamp not destroyed immediately after bottle is empty = illegal.
If you want to secretly refill all the vodka bottles in your bar with cheap stuff you bought at the local store go ahead. But you will be caught in short order, as someone will notice that something is amiss. People who have lived in Texas know that scraping off the tax stamp is normal - if you don’t do it in your bar someone will notice, and all it takes is one call to the TABC and you will have undercover agents all over your bar.
Here is the relevant law:
Sec. 28.08. REFILLING CONTAINERS PROHIBITED. No holder of a mixed beverage permit may refill with any substance a container which contained distilled spirits on which the tax prescribed in Section 201.03 of this code has been paid.
Sec. 28.081. SUBSTITUTION OF BRAND WITHOUT CONSENT OF CONSUMER PROHIBITED. (a) The holder of a mixed beverage permit or a private club permit, or the agent, servant, or employee of a holder of a mixed beverage permit or private club permit commits an offense if the holder, agent, servant, or employee substitutes one brand of alcoholic beverage for a brand that has been specifically requested by a consumer, unless the consumer is notified and consents to the substitution.
(b) A holder of a permit who violates Subsection (a) of this section is liable in a civil suit to a consumer for damages resulting from the substitution. The court shall award the prevailing party in an action under this section attorney’s fees and costs of action.
So the reason you scrape the stamp off is because you are required to, and it is illegal to refill the bottle. Also, you don’t want Scuzzy’s Local Bar to pick your empty Grey Goose bottle (with a stamp) out of the trash and fill it with Popov and sell it for $8 a shot. When they get busted TABC will track down the stamp, find your bar and nail your ass for not scraping the stamp.
Nothing is physically preventing you from doing it, but then again nothing is physically preventing you from doing any number of illegal things as well.
The threat of losing your liquor license is enough to keep almost everyone in line, though.
That’s why you will also see them breaking the bottles. A lot of places have a nifty little device that cleanly breaks the end of the bottle so that it can’t be reused.
The traditional, formal ritual of serving a bottle of wine is very old, and it’s partly based on trying to keep an innkeeper honest. The bottle is brought out and shown to the person who’s paying (formerly “the man”,) to ensure the label matches what he intended to order. Then the cork is pulled and presented to him. Some sources say that’s so he can smell the cork for spoilage. The way I learned it was that you look at the cork to see if it matches the label. The original cork has the name of the vintner on it. A sip of wine is poured for approval. The customer nods or says it’s good. Then the waiter (or sommelier, in a really fancy joint) pours for the rest of the table, coming back finally to the paying customer. A dishonest innkeeper could buy a bag of new corks, and refill empty bottles with cheap wine with a new cork.
Nowadays, the idea of a restaurateur switching wines is almost unthinkable, but the custom remains.
Okay, I’m not much of a drinker so this will probably just show my alcohol naivete, but I find that this has been made into a separate specific law to be hilarious. What about the Toys 'R Us shopper who finds out that his Beanie Baby panda bear has been switched with a Fisher Price stuffed koala? No special protection for him? Or the diner who wants Aquafina bottled water but is given Evian? Can’t there just be a one-size-fits-all “you gotta sell what you’re claiming to sell” law? Funny stuff, says I.
Agreed. It’s happening again with cell phones. First they passed laws that say “no talking on the cell phone while driving”. Now we’re getting calls (no pun intended, but chuckling is permitted) for laws that say “no texting on the cell phone while driving”. After that, we’ll surely get calls for “no playing games on the cell phone while driving”, and then “no using the cell phone as a mirror while driving” . . .
There has been a growing trend in US law for many years to attempt to codify everything into the law; to get every little tiny detail written down so that there is no ambiguity, and no leeway for anything resembling human judgment of any kind.
First thing to remember is that US liquor laws are war between people who don’t want booze at all and people who do with a fair amount of protect the children thrown in. So these dipshit laws are around so the prohibitionist can claim to their base they are doing something about the booze problem and the boozers can say to their base that they got booze approved. Like the Utah laws about becoming a member of the private club to be served. The need for miniatures because the whole bottle must be sold and used at once in some state (I forgot which).
Good news, gazpacho! Utah finally ended that stupid practice of requiring a private membership to get into a bar. I think South Carolina was the state that only had mini bottles served at bars.
That is good news EvilTOJ. At the end the way that Utah private clubs worked was really really dumb. You wrote your name on a card paid about 3 bucks and then it was a normal bar like anywhere else. It was a hassle but in no real way cut down on drinking.
It will make apres ski a little less dumb next year.
I take it that, in Texas, the tax stamp is placed on the front label of the bottle where everybody can see it? I ask because, here in Washington, the tax stamp is on a strip that is wrapped over the cap, and the strip is broken when the cap is twisted off and discarded.
We do, however, have the same kind of laws regarding refilling bottles, etc.
A gentleman very knowledgeable about wine pointed out that the other thing the cork can tell you is if the wine was re-corked for some reason. If you order a 20-year-old bottle of Cabernet, there had better be a lot of staining and some sediment on the end of the cork. If the cork is clean, the bottle has been opened and re-corked.
Yeah, I doubt that it happens very often anymore, particularly in the type of establishment that would have 20-year-old Cabernets on hand.