An interesting question about HM wine

jobbingmusician

OK, so I know you are not allowed to sell HM wine. We are a charity and propose to GIVE AWAY a glass of HM wine with the Christmas dinners we are selling in our cafe (which is run by people with learning disabilities).

Can anyone see any problems with this? And would we be pushing our luck in giving away further glasses, and stressing that we will be holding a retirement collection??? (which potentially boils down to giving away wine in return for a donation to the charity). :rolleyes:

Lotus-eater

I'm sure I saw on the news the other day about shops who were not allowed to give away glasses of something at Christmas, as they didn't have a drinks licence.
So you could probably get in trouble for that, on the other hand, who's going to know?

jobbingmusician

Thanks - we do have a drinks licence, though (I probably should have mentioned this!)

Primrose

The best thing to do is contact the Licensing Officer at your local/district council offices. He may be able to give you some guidance to ensure you don't fall foul of the law. Tell them what you propose to do and don't ask for permission. Just ask them what procedure you have to follow to make your actions legal.

jobbingmusician

Hmm, that's a strategy, certainly - but it would rather prevent him or her from turning a blind eye.....

foxgloves

You know, I've read this out of interest, and while my personal view is that someone would have to be a complete & utter stingy jobsworth scrooge to say you can't do what you propose, we all know that officialdom is made up of just such people & rules, so just in case there is a danger of you incurring a fine or getting into trouble, it's probably worth contacting council licensing officer as suggested.

SailorSam

I did Chinese cookery a few years ago, the last week before Christmas we all cooked something different to have a party, then we invited the people from the wine making class next door.
I wonder were they breaking the law, swoping booze for food .

sarahg1969

I seem to recall that they got around this at school events, by running a raffle. You'd buy a raffle ticket, and "win" a glass of wine every time.

helyg

sarahg1969 wrote: »

I seem to recall that they got around this at school events, by running a raffle. You'd buy a raffle ticket, and "win" a glass of wine every time.

That's what we do at PTA fundraising events, sell raffle tickets and every ticket comes with a free glass of wine. At the end of the night we pull the raffle and the winner gets a bottle of (leftover) wine. We actually once ran a cheese and wine night on this principle!

alittlebitofmagic

I'd say just keep the two completely seperate and make no connection, ie: give wine to everyone, then ask for donations towards your collection. Or get all staff to bring in a nice foodie thing that is lurking in their cupboards, make a hamper and raffle that instead As they are in good spirits from the free wine, they will probably be more in the mood to buy a ticket