Napa, Calif.—Today is the 81st anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, but its legacy lives on through strange laws related to alcohol—even in California, which produces most of the nation’s wine.

It was just last year, for example, that California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law permitting California bartenders to use infusions in their cocktails. They had already been doing this for ages, but in 2010, state liquor authorities dug up an 80-year-old law that stated it was illegal to “alter” alcohol in any way. 

In addition, California restricts owners of wineries from selling their wine in restaurants they own (or have an investment in) but rewards brewpubs by allowing them to serve hard liquor without an expensive liquor license.

Let’s look back to Prohibition itself to see some of the origins of these practices.

Home brew led to more vineyards
Prohibition banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, but not their possession or consumption. In addition, it allowed heads of households to make up to 200 gallons of wine per year for their families’ consumption (but not to serve it to others). Single persons could (and still can) make 100 gallons.

One result was great demand for wine grapes. California grapegrowers increased land under cultivation by about 700% during the first five years of Prohibition. Wines & Vines started as California Grapegrower in 1919 to help educate those grapegrowers. Many families now prominent in the wine business got their start shipping grapes to eastern cities full of immigrants (most of them Catholic), for whom wine was part of life.

This led to demand for grape varieties that worked well for home winemakers such as Alicante Bouchet, Carignan and Petite Sirah, and they replaced varieties of perceived higher quality formerly used to make wine.

Also popular were liquid and semi-solid grape concentrates—often called “wine bricks” or “wine blocks.” They were sold with a warning not to add water or they could ferment into wine. Sometimes, they even included a packet of yeast and a notice not to add it to the mixture.

We can assume that most of these home-brewed wines weren’t of the highest quality.

The law also allowed the sale of sacramental wine to priests and ministers, and allowed rabbis to approve sales of sacramental wine to individuals for Sabbath and holiday use at home.

Not surprisingly, many people found religion.

Wineries could also make medicinal wine, and some doctors were generous in writing prescriptions (as with pills more recently), while many pharmacies prospered through the wine and other alcoholic beverages.

The ill effects of Prohibition are now well known, but its repeal was largely facilitated by an attempt to boost the economy out of the Great Depression and increase tax revenues as much as to end its problems.

In a compromise to pass repeal, however, states were allowed to treat alcohol unlike any other goods and set their own laws that restricted free trade among the states.

The process led to many dry states (and dry parts of states), the establishment of the three-tier system to prohibit manufacturers from controlling distribution or retailing as well as “tied-house” laws to ensure that producers didn’t take over the retail sale of alcoholic beverages.

It also led to many laws that restricted sales of alcohol, some to reduce consumption but many for religious reasons. Here are some strange examples, almost all dating to the end of Prohibition, that apparently still apply:

New York state law bans the sale of spirits—but not beer and wine—within 200 feet of a church.

Some states still monopolize the sale of wine, beer or spirits, and others restrict who can sell them.

In some states liquor stores have to be closed on Sundays and grocery stores can’t sell beer or wine on Sundays.

Then there are states like New York that limit sales of alcoholic beverages to one store in a chain. Only one Trader Joe’s and one Whole Foods in the populous state can sell wine.

In some places, you can buy beer in grocery stores but not wine or spirits. (Or wine and beer, but not spirits.)

States (and cities) stop alcohol sales at different times, from midnight to 4 a.m. in general.

In 2006, a tapas restaurant in Virginia was fined for serving sangria, which violated a 1934 law banning the mixture of wine and spirits, and the sangria used wine and brandy. The legislature later repealed that law.

South Carolina public schools, by law, devote the fourth Friday of every October to teaching kids about the dangers of overindulgence.

Growler laws vary state by state. Maryland, for example, allows only five establishments (all brewpubs) to refill growers.

Some states, such as Florida, used to ban growler refills altogether. Delaware’s governor signed a bill into law in May 2013 allowing liquor stores to sell and fill growlers onsite. Prior to that law, growlers could only be filled at brewpubs or breweries.

Several states only allow 3.2% beer sales in groceries and convenience stores, with stronger beers sold in liquor stores. Some states prohibit sales of individual bottles or cold beer, apparently to discourage immediate consumption.

Happy-hour laws vary widely. Some states, such as Massachusetts, ban happy hours outright. (Bar owners get creative, though; since they legally can’t offer drink specials, they offer food discounts instead.) Some communities ban happy hours, too, while other states, such as Oregon, allow bars and restaurants to offer happy-hour promotions but prohibit them from advertising the deals.