Barriers to Entry

In college, there was a craze known as "Sweet Tea Vodka." Created by a liquor salesman and a part-time vintner in South Carolina, Firefly tasted liked sweet tea - it went down easily.  However, it also had the same alcohol content as its vodka base - it took you down easily. Many people fell prey to the sweet, almost syrupy charm, of this ingenious concoction that was as friendly to your face as its southern roots would imply and as dangerous as a Myrtle Beach firecracker stand on the Fourth of July.
I interned for Firefly. Up until that point, the only industries I had been exposed to had been the law, finance and the travel company my mom worked for. I had never seen the liquor industry. It was much to my surprise (and delight) when my first meeting with my new boss involved the tasting of the new flavors of Firefly. Men dressed in jeans swapped stories about golf and family while tasting the new Raspberry, Peach and Mint flavors. There was little talk of actual business.
On my first tag along sales call, I realized that business talk was still noticeably absent. As I shadowed my boss across the bars of downtown Nashville, we took shots (before noon) with the bartenders on Broadway and swapped more stories about golf and family and drinking.
I did notice a pitch that was subtly delivered, about the same time I noticed that we were the only group authorized to sell Firefly in the region. At the time I didn't grasp how unique it was that the distributor I was working with had no competition in selling a product that they didn't create. They also had very little competition in selling alcohol at all. There were some other groups that they "competed" with, but their hardest sell wasn't convincing the bartenders to place an order for alcohol from them. It was simply to convince them of new products that they were licensed to sell. They were effectively operating in a competition-free market.
As we listened to the problems with regulation of alcohol in class, I remembered my internship and immediately understood why incumbents would be so loathed to open up these regional monopolies. If I'm on the only lemonade stand in town, why would I want to you buy lemonade through the internet, even if it might be more what you want? I also realized why having strong legal representation would be so crucial for this fight, along with having the proper allies in the statehouse.
I believe that disruption will occur, the same way Uber was able to change the paradigm in the taxi monopolies. However, I also understand that it will not be solely on the desirability of the wine being sold, but rather through the clever business plans and aggressively creative legal and political actions of disruptors.