I have a confession to make.

The one thing I would really love to have for Christmas, the one thing I'm least likely to get, is a bottle of the old family wine.

It turns out that a distant branch of my family tree runs a winery in Baden, in Germany, barely a draft notice's toss away from the Swiss border. Weingut Blankenhorn (I think it translates to good wine by the Blankenhorns) is run by Rosemarie Blankenhorn (known as Roy), who is about my age. In addition to the usual German varieties they also make a Chardonnay and a Merlot and a Cab.

But unless I can scrape up airfare and meet Ms. Blankenhorn in person (another life ambition), my chances of trying her wines are slim and none. This is because the winery is fairly small, so that only a big importer would be able to do a deal with her, and also because state laws in the U.S. keep big out-of-state importers from serving Georgia, even by mail or Web.

But that may be about to change.

The Supreme Court is hearing a case this term brought by two small U.S. wineries seeking to overturn interstate shipment bans on the books in dozens of states, including Georgia.

At issue in this case, believe it or not, is the language of the 21st Amendment which ended Prohibition. That amendment gave states broad authority to regulate the sale of alcohol, and the laws in this area are still a patchwork. (There are still some places in Georgia, for instance, that are completely dry.) In California, for instance, you can pick up a half-gallon of gin at the grocery store, along with your lettuce. In New Hampshire the best deals are found at a a freeway rest stop run by the state, which has a monopoly on retailing.

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, whom I usually associate with being on the side of the angels, has written a brief supporting states' rights in this case. Personally I think my chances of getting a glass of Roy Blankenhorn's Chardonnay without sitting opposite her are still slim and none. (That's her above, on the right, with her wine master Fritz Deutschmann.) But you never know.