Council OKs wine and beer tastings in downtown Athens

By Holly Hollman
hhollman@decaturdaily.com · 340-2445

ATHENS — Wine and beer connoisseurs will be able to attend tastings in downtown Athens.

On Monday, the City Council approved adding specialty beverage stores to its alcohol ordinance.

Such stores would sell domestic and imported wine and beer for off-premises consumption but could also host up to two wine and beer tastings a month.

Councilwoman Milly Caudle is out of the country, but she said at a previous meeting that the city needed to make this change because she knew of someone wanting to open a wine store downtown.

The council also changed the ordinance to allow merchandise stores downtown to have incidental table wine sales for off-premises consumption. Such stores cannot sell beer or liquor and can use only 15 percent of their public floor space for wine displays.

These stores can do up to two wine tastings a month.

Neither specialty stores nor merchandise stores can offer the tastings free of charge.

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