Mississippi, which has been one of the last holdouts on DTC shipping, has finally joined the other states that allow wineries to ship directly to their residents. On February 27, Mississippi's governor signed a bill creating a direct wine shipper's permit for wineries to ship their wine to Mississippi residents. The law goes into effect July 1, 2025, however, the MS Department of Revenue must still create a process and licensing forms and may also engage in rulemaking for the new permit.

Here are some of the highlights from the bill that was passed:

• Only wineries qualify for this permit
• Wines offered for sale through Mississippi distributors, brokers, and solicitors in the state may not be shipped DTC unless designated as “highly allocated” (which the state has yet to define)
• Wineries may only ship twelve (12) nine (9) liter cases of wine annually to any one address
• Fulfillment providers and common carriers must also be licensed to ship on behalf of wineries
• The license fee is only $100, but application fees are unknown at this time
• A tax of 15.5% of the sales price of each sale will be due with reporting required monthly
• MS license applicants must normally show 100% of their ownership, however, direct wine shipper applicants are exempt, and the Department may also waive the fingerprint requirement

When applications will be accepted and permits issued to allow for DTC wine shipments is still unknown; watch for further announcements as new details become available.

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