It took years of pushing by the wine industry, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and an added day for the 2005 state legislative session, but New York's wineries finally have secured the ability to get their products to out-of-state customers.

The Legislature last week, with the blessing of Gov. George Pataki, passed a law authorizing direct shipment of wine into and out of the state.

New York's existing law had banned such activity, allowing only in-state direct selling to consumers and forcing the state's wineries to go through distributors in order to get their products to out-of-state markets. But most of New York's wineries - including ones in our area - are too small to work with distributors, and so they've been missing out on a potentially vast market - the thousands of people scattered throughout the country who have visited their operations.

Fortunately, a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year found the state's law unconstitutional. Amazingly (or not if you know how this Legislature typically operates), lawmakers bickered and delayed over a revised law to the point that some in the wine industry thought nothing would get passed.

But to the wineries' delight, the session that was supposed to end Thursday was extended another day and state leaders reached an agreement.

Yes, lawmakers do deserve credit for getting it right. This new law makes sense economically and it complies with the U.S. Constitution.

There is a limit in the new law for the number of cases a consumer can buy in a year - 36 - but that should be plenty for individual consumers.

But the battle for passage once again highlights Albany's dysfunction.

An up-or-down vote on this item should have come weeks ago, but the power of lobbyists (particularly downstate liquor distributors) and the Legislature leaders almost kept this from passing.