ASHLAND, Ky. (WSAZ) -- In 34 states, including West Virginia, grocery store wine sales are the norm. In Kentucky, however, it's the exception.

Now, the industry push is fully uncorked to allow Bluegrass State grocery stores to sell wine. WSAZ.com's Randy Yohe looked inside this issue, explaining what it will take -- and what stores say all will gain -- by selling wine with food.

At the Kroger grocery store location in Barboursville, W.Va., store managers say their expansive well-maintained wine department is a driving force in food sales. Shoppers such as Randy Wilson say -- like a good restaurant -- it makes sense to buy wine with your food.

"I buy wine for my meals," he said. "It's just like buying milk."

But at the Kroger store in Ashland there's a big sign next to the beer aisle asking rhetorically, "Where's the wine?" Kentucky's food store industry has formed the Food and Wine Coalition, a nonprofit lobby group urging Kentuckians to go online and petition their state representatives to allow wine sales in grocery stores.

According to Luke Schmidt with the Food and Wine Coalition, the issue would have to be passed by the state General Assembly since Kentucky has no voter referendum option.

At the Ashland Kroger, managers say people -- mostly out-of-town residents -- are always asking, "Where's the wine?"

"It would be a win-win," assistant store manager Jeff Johnson said. "We would gain profits, and customers would have more choices to buy wine."

Coalition officials say the benefits would be bountiful -- first, that wine with groceries would expand consumer choices in the marketplace and compete with liquor stores that have had a monopoly since prohibition.

Secondly, the commonwealth would collect more taxes -- the coalition estimates $84 million in five years. Third, the added products would promote the growing Kentucky wine industry.

The coalition says the law would only take effect in already wet communities; dry areas would stay dry. The coalition also says wine is the second fastest growing product category -- after bottled water -- being sold in American food stores.