It's almost hard to believe that come Jan. 1, S.C. drinking establishments at last can legally pour cocktails from large bottles of liquor. A little over a year ago, observers feared that the minibottle might forever be South Carolina's only legal method for dispensing drinks.

The S.C. liquor lobby had managed, as in years past, to bottle up a bill to allow S.C. voters to decide whether to strip the minibottle mandate from the S.C. Constitution. The lobby's constituent groups - four distributors and the 52 Class B liquor stores that sell liquor to drinking establishments - liked the mandate just fine. Minibottles have been a source of great wealth for both.

Then, in the last week of the 2004 session, senators and representatives, in response to counter-pressure from the S.C. hospitality lobby, put a minibottle constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2 general election ballot. Voters approved it by a large majority.

That was a start. It now fell to S.C. legislators to pass a law to allow drinking establishments to pour drinks from liter bottles of liquor. As the 2005 session dawned, tourism leaders had high hopes that this enabling legislation would become part of the Code of Laws by May - last month.

Instead, the liquor distributors and Class B stores began a nasty fight for economic dominance in the brave new world of free-poured drinks, with each side trying to cut the other out of the right to deliver liquor to drinking establishments. The hope of having a law in place by the opening of the 2005 season evaporated.

In the end, the Senate passed a bill giving the Class B stores in South Carolina exclusive right to deliver big liquor bottles to drinking establishments. The House also cut liquor distributors in on the delivery action, believing - correctly, in our view - that enhanced competition would result in lower prices for drinking establishments and consumers.

Both sides held so firm that early last week it looked as though there would be no legislation this year - delaying the start of free pouring until well into 2006. Then, Wednesday, the day before the 2005 session was to end, the House blinked. The resultant compromise allowed the Class B stores exclusive delivery rights but stipulated that a legislative committee would monitor their performance, and that legislators would review the situation in 2007. Liquor deliveries would begin Jan. 1. Sanford is committed to signing the bill into law.

The law, product of a years-long hospitality-industry quest, will have broad economic, public safety and environmental benefits. Bars, restaurants and hotels no longer will have to pick up their liquors from Class B stores, as now superseded state liquor law required. Bartenders will be able less expensively to mix cocktails that use more than one kind of liquor, and the resultant drinks will be less potent.

Instead of the 1.7-ounce liquor jolt delivered by the typical minibottle, bartenders will pour the 1.25-ounce drinks typical in other states. Drunken driving on our crowded, often narrow streets and highways will diminish, resulting in fewer alcohol-related deaths and injuries.

And more big liquor bottles will be recycled, as they work well in glass grinders. Minibottles typically ended up whole in landfills because they tend to clog the grinders.

The legislative process that wrought the law wasn't pretty. But in the end, the political system delivered. For that, our legislators and the governor deserve great credit.