The Napa Valley wine industry is pushing for change to the county’s strict 36-year-old laws that dictate how wineries can operate.
Dan Hernandez/The Chronicle
A reformist movement is brewing in Napa Valley, notorious for being California’s most regulated wine region.
Napa winery permits, which are expensive and often slow to obtain, dictate exactly how individual wineries can operate, including how many employees they can have; how much wine they can produce; how many visitors they can see each week; what types of experiences they can (and cannot) offer; and whether they can host weddings (most can’t). These laws, established in 1990 under Napa County’s Winery Definition Ordinance, were designed to protect the region’s agricultural environment, in part by curbing commercial development.
Since 1990, Napa Valley has grown dramatically, far exceeding what the local government likely believed was possible back then. The winery count in what’s now one of the world’s most acclaimed wine destinations has more than doubled, to roughly 500, and owners are frequently at odds with the region’s 36-year-old laws, arguing that they’re preventing them from remaining competitive.
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Environmentalists, however, feel the county’s agricultural protections are more important than ever, and want more put in place. They contend that the wine industry’s continued development increases the risk of devastating wildfires, taxes the region’s water resources and compounds the impacts of climate change. “When you bring people to wildfire-prone areas, you increase the wildfire risk,” Peter Broderick, a staff attorney at the nonprofit Center for Bilogical Diversity, told the Chronicle in 2020. “We should not be building in these areas.” Locals have fought also against winery proposals over increased traffic congestion and accident risk in what was once a much quieter place.
In the past few years, as the wine downturn has deepened, the tensions between the wine industry and Napa County have intensified, and overregulation has become one of several scapegoats (see also: Gen Z and GLP-1s) on which the wine industry is pinning its woes. The most contentious episode in recent years has been Napa County’s years-long feud with Hoopes Vineyard, which it accused of hosting tastings — and operating an illegal rescue animal farm, among other things — without a permit. That case, in which a judge ruled in Napa County’s favor and ordered Hoopes to pay $4 million, prompted a federal lawsuit brought by three small family wineries who claim that the County’s regulation violates numerous constitutional rights. Last year, much of the wine industry became outraged when people learned the County could restrict their right to host members of the trade, which is viewed as an essential business practice.
A handful of outspoken individuals have taken legal action against Napa County, and amid all of the complaints, I’ve long anticipated collective, industry-wide effort to effect change.
In April, the Napa wine industry’s major trade organizations — the Napa Valley Vintners, Napa Valley Grapegrowers, the Napa County Farm Bureau and the Winegrowers of Napa County — submitted a letter to the County containing a list of 23 recommendations for code changes. These requests included alterations to tasting room and event operations requirements, the county’s groundwater fees, the project appeals process and specific amendments to the Winery Definition Ordinance. There were also come vaguer suggestions related to preserving agriculture, such as “enforcing fixed urban growth boundaries” and “protect (ing) biodiversity through vegetation preservation.”
At a Board of Supervisors meeting last week, Rex Stults, Napa Valley Vintners vice president of industry relations, said the four trade groups, which tend to operate separately, started collaborating on the list last summer. Stults said they were inspired by a Press Democrat Letter to the Editor, in which Napa County chief executive officer Ryan Alsop called for a “unified proposal” from them. “We had a lot of meetings and brainstormed some common sense ideas that could help existing vintners and growers during these tough times,” Stults said. “It was a one-for-all, all-for-one, one-for-all situation.”
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At that same meeting, and in response to the April letter, Napa County planning director Brian Bordona proposed a handful of winery regulation changes “aimed at streamlining the existing process” to supervisors. The presentation suggested, among other things, making it easier and cheaper for wineries to host events; eliminating the need for an administrative permit to install a bike rack or electric vehicle chargers; permitting the removal of “by appointment only” signs to encourage walk-ins; expanding the eligibility for California’s new law, AB720, which allows wine growers to host events at their vineyard; and increasing production and visitation limits for micro wineries.
These considerations, though small, could set the stage for more serious negotiations in the coming years that could overhaul the county’s Winery Definition Ordinance, which hasn’t been updated since 2010. Napa Valley’s wine industry certainly doesn’t need more wineries to compete with, but it does need more flexibility to innovate as the region loses customers to more affordable and diverse California regions, such as Sonoma and Paso Robles. High regulatory costs contribute to the region’s exorbitant tasting fees and bottle prices, and hospitality restrictions prevent Napa wineries from offering the types of experiences younger drinkers are seeking: Yoga in the vineyard, Paint & Sip events and family-friendly environments. The industry has also argued that intense regulations are discouraging the next generation of winemakers from investing in Napa and bringing in fresh ideas, limiting buy-in to corporations and private equity.
Yet a Winery Definition Ordinance revamp that balances the protection of agriculture in the face of climate change with supporting Napa County’s main economic driver, the wine industry, during an unprecedented downturn, is a daunting task. It would be like rewriting Napa Valley’s constitution — and could determine whether Napa continues its reign as America’s top wine region.
Dining and Cooking