A producer with a Tennessee Winery Direct Shipper license can send wine to a Tennessee adult, up to nine liters in a month and a modest annual total per household. A private person cannot, a wine club that is not the producer cannot, and no carrier will hand the box over without face-to-face adult signature. The rules the Alcoholic Beverage Commission publishes are below, read on 2026-08-11.
Three moving parts, each one a hard stop.
Tennessee grants direct shipment as a narrow permission attached to wine production. The license attaches to the producer holding a federal basic permit, not to a retailer, wine club, marketplace or private individual.
| Sender | Permitted? | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| A private person sending a bottle to a friend | No | No individual path exists |
| An online wine retailer that did not produce the wine | No | Direct-to-consumer is producer-only |
| A licensed out-of-state winery with the TN Direct Shipper license | Yes | $300 application, $150 annual, federal basic permit required |
| The delivering common carrier | Under contract to the licensee | Face-to-face adult signature; delivery record kept |
The volume rules are producer-scaled. A large winery producing 270,000 liters a year or more may ship up to 27 liters per person annually to Tennessee; a smaller producer may ship up to 54 liters per person annually. Either way, the monthly cap of nine liters per consumer is the same.
The Tennessee license is granted to a person, firm or corporation that holds a TTB permit to manufacture, bottle or rectify wine, and ships wine produced under that permit. A wine club without a production role does not qualify.
The license requires delivery by a common carrier that will perform face-to-face delivery to a person 21 or older, with signature at receipt. The outer carton must be labelled visibly from at least three feet away with the mandated CONTAINS ALCOHOL notice.
Direct shippers keep records for three years and submit a quarterly report to the commission with recipient names and addresses, shipment dates, quantities and products. A quarter with no shipments still files.
Tennessee has been an active enforcer of its DTC statute. In 2024 the state entered consent orders with several online retailers that had shipped without a license, so a mail-order operation that treats Tennessee informally is unlikely to remain informal for long.
Tennessee still has dry and partially wet counties and cities under its patchwork local-option regime. The direct shipper statute is silent on dry-area shipments in the base text; the carrier is under no obligation to inspect the destination. Practically, a licensee that ships into a jurisdiction where possession is illegal exposes both the household and, at the margin, its own license. A pre-order check against the current state map is quiet insurance.
Signature at delivery does not create a defence to a local dry-area breach; it satisfies the age-verification rule alone.
Tennessee updates the direct shipper text periodically through its rule-making process. The numbers above are what those sources published on the date shown; a shipping program should read the current text before opening the Tennessee account.
No. Only a producer holding a Tennessee Winery Direct Shipper license may send wine to a Tennessee consumer, and only through a common carrier that will deliver face to face with adult signature.
Nine liters in any calendar month, and no more than 27 liters annually from a large producer or 54 liters annually from a small producer under 270,000 liters. That works out to roughly one to two cases a year per household from any one winery.
Yes. Tennessee requires face-to-face delivery to a person 21 or older, with signature on receipt. The outer box must be marked in a way visible from at least three feet with the words CONTAINS ALCOHOL: SIGNATURE OF PERSON OVER 21 OR OLDER REQUIRED FOR DELIVERY.
A $300 non-refundable application fee and, once approved, a $150 annual license fee. The winery must already hold a federal basic permit from the TTB and produce wine under that permit.
Yes. Records must be kept three years and a quarterly report goes to the commission listing recipient names, addresses, dates, quantities and products for every shipment.