Legal News

No Sangrias in Virginia for You!

By Peter Lattman

Some of the Law Blog’s most memorable — or is it unmemorable? — nights have been sangria fueled. None of them has been in Virginia. Now we know why, thanks to the WaPo (via Overlawyered): It’s illegal to serve sangria in Virginia.

That’s too bad for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is because “Virginia Sangria” has a nice ring to it. The fruity wine and brandy cocktail violates a 75-year-old state law that prohibits mixing wine or beer with spirits. So that’s not just sangria. If you’re ever in the Commonwealth, no sake bombs for you! If convicted, a bartender could go to jail for a year.

“It’s absolutely preposterous,” said one restaurant manager who was forced to serve a bowdlerized version of the Spanish drink. “What harm is this causing?” (”Bowdlerized” was borrowed from our friend Ted Frank at Overlawyered. Along with Brobdingnagian, it’s our second fun “B” word of the day.)

The state legislature is considering tweaking the 1934 law. Writes Ted Frank on Overlawyered: “Left unspoken: when is someone going to bring a consumer class action against the Spanish restaurants serving faux sangrias without warning customers?”

Separately, we were also surprised to learn this morning — courtesy of the Heath Ledger tragedy — that practicing massage therapy without a license in New York is a felony, punishable by up to four years in prison. Law Blog readers, are there any other arcane state laws out there we should know about? And Virginia law grads, how’d you make it those warm spring Charlottesville days without the ability to order up a pitcher of Sangria?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 25, 2008 (boomark / email).