Typical winery sign post - Amador County near Sacramento
My post in September 2010 started off saying “We had been holding off hoping to finally post good news for San Diego County wine lovers, tourism, and the community as a whole, but alas, that is not the case.”
The wine grape harvest for 2010 has been delayed in much of California, Oregon, and Washington state, due to cool weather so we have time to post on this topic today as we urge the brix (wine grape sugar content) upward.
You say: “Hey! I saw that the San Diego County Tiered Winery Ordinance passed on August 4th – Hooray!
When are the new winery tasting rooms opening? I can’t wait!!!”
Well wait you must.
Lawsuits as a weapon of mass obstruction: While the San Diego County Tiered Winery Ordinance still stands, anyone opening a tasting room under its current provisions is are risk of premature shut- down if the courts issue an injunction as a result of the lawsuit that has been filed (3 Sept) by a local group of ordinance opponents. A similar lawsuit threat was raised some two years ago by the same opponents.
CEQA a complicated well-meaning law: Those of you who are familiar with California Environmental law – primarily the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), know that this well meaning law has been used not only to protect the environment, but also in an unintended way, as a tool to stop development and projects beneficial to the community.
After the last lawsuit threat, San Diego County regrouped and spent $250,000 completing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) plus the cost of associated staff time, hearings, and public review processes to provide the legal means of moving forward with a county-wide winery ordinance.
Most folks in the county we’ve discussed these issues with, support San Diego’s nascent winery industry, agriculture and business in general. They cannot understand why the opponents continually block this beneficial initiative.
Others residents simply can’t understand the County’s prohibitively expensive permitting process – when wineries state-wide have reasonable and affordable opportunities for on-site tasting rooms and sales. The delays and cost inherent in the prior ordinance are the primary reason there has only been ONE new on-site winery tasting room open in the last few years. When advised of a $250,000 winery Major Use Permit (MUP) most citizens (rightfully) display a jaw- drop of significant proportions and typically say “That’s ridiculous.”
To be fair here, it’s important to point out the County Supervisors recognize the chilling impact the current permitting process has on agriculture and wineries and they took significant action to rectify the situation in the form of a two year effort crafting the Tiered Winery Ordinance and directing the EIR – but their visionary efforts were derailed by yet another lawsuit.
Economics (or not) of small wineries: Vince Vasquez and Eric Larson of the San Diego Farm Bureau explain the economics of water-wise wine grapes and small San Diego family-owned wineries in this May 15th weekly National University Impact San Diego radio public policy show “San Diego and the local wine industry!” The show can be streamed, or downloaded as a Podcast at this link .
The economics of scale that exist (well actually there are none) at a premium Boutique winery require on-site retail sales to maximize profits to sustain operations. Premium wines require tastings to appreciate their uniqueness and quality. For example, 100% of Eagles Nest 2007-2008 wines and Ports have won medals gold-silver-bronze – a total of 30 in the 2009-2010 competition year.
The overhead of an off-site tasting room for a family winery operation is untenable and cooperative tasting rooms in our area have consistently failed. Case study after case study emphasize the importance of on-site retail and wine club sales for Boutiques – and the many years needed to achieve profitability due to the heavy capitalization of a winery. These are not Two-Buck-Chuck operations that can efficiently amazingly produce, bottle, distribute, and sell a quaff-able daily wine for a profit at a few bucks a bottle.
For an insight into the amazing Two-Buck-Chuck story, see a post from earlier this year on this site detailing Fred Franzia’s Bronco Winery operation at this link. If you are interested in more information about Eagles Nest you can see a this week’s San Diego Reader magazine at this link.
We’ve stated in testimony at Supervisor and Planning Commission hearings (this link ) that tasting room permissions and on-site retail sales of wine are “mission critical” (in military parlance that veterans will understand) – a capability critical to achieving goals – mission success. Small wineries do not have the (immense) economies of scale that large operations have, and by-the-way 90% of wineries in California are small family operations. Boutiques cannot operate on a wholesale, retail, or restaurant basis alone particularly in the current economic malaise that exists locally and globally.
There will never be a large winery in San Diego County: Practically speaking, there will never be a “danger” of large wineries in San Diego County – the agricultural parcels are too small, the terrain too sloping, and the number of vineyards too low to sustain many wineries. The Boutiques reflected in the Tiered Winery Ordinance are by wine volume 1/100th of what would be considered a “small winery” in the industry – thus a Boutique is more a microscopic or nano-winery.
If and until until San Diego County leadership can overcome CEQA challenges, and deliver tasting rooms with retail sales permissions to small family wineries, the citizens of San Diego County will have to drive to Riverside (Temecula), Santa Barbara, Paso Robles, Napa, or Sonoma counties – sadly, there will be NO wine industry here.
What you can do: San Diego County residents supporting wineries are urged to remain aware and involved politically and voice their support for legislation supporting the local wine industry. Communicate your support for the ordinance to your Supervisor contact them via this link. No problem ever got better without the participation of an educated committed constituency. Thank your Supervisors for their effort on this ordinance and offer your support for tasting rooms at local wineries!
If you are interested in more information about Eagles Nest you can see a this week’s San Diego Reader magazine at this link. Or simply visit the many blog posts on this public blog.
Our Web 1.0 website is http://eaglesnestwinery.com and our private blog for customers is http://eaglesnestwinery.ning.com . We’re a leading winery on Twittter at http://twitter.com/eaglesnestwine and on Facebook at this link.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting. Hope everything will be ok for everyone.
Elanie – Appreciate the hope/wish.
Aside from the County Supervisors that “get it,” the local governmental bureaucrats need some help in understanding the intent of the Tiered Winery Ordinance – to enable a process to allow the implementation and growth of a wine tourism industry in this County starting with the implementation/enabling of Boutique wineries.
We are blessed with a great wine-grape growing climate producing award-winning wines – we only need tasting rooms to share the high-quality product of our vineyards with wine lovers!
It’s a crying shame to see the CEQA being used as a tool to railroad the tasting room ordinance.
For those who have not attended the County Supervisors hearing or read the “protest” letters on the oppositions website, I have done both. The protesters have absolutely nothing to say concerning the environment, water, or agriculture. What they is say is that they do not want any winery on any road near their home, especially private roads. They fear reckless speeders and their children being hurt by motorists.
I have a few words about that.
Have you driven on those private roads? The speed limit is 20 mph. I have a heavy duty work truck and I cannot, in any way, drive faster than 15 mph. Protesters at the San Diego Supervisors hearing stated that winery patrons would drive recklessly on their streets because they’ve never been on them before. Let’s think about this for a minute. Would you drive recklessly on a road you’ve never been on before? I don’t think so.
They don’t want their children or horses being hurt. Number one, don’t let your kids play in the street. As far as the horses ~ I’ve lived in the Temecula Wine Country for over 23 years and have watched the expansion of wineries. A large number of them are built adjacent to horse ranches, with horse trails cutting straight across the front of the wineries property. I have never seen, nor read about an injury to a person or horse that was caused by a winery patron.
Wineries are not the same establishments as places such as the “Yard House” which is in my opinion a crowded meat market. Winery patrons are verifiable upper income, highly educated, and successful citizens of our community.
Gosh, we really need to be careful of those types of wine people hey?
This is an interesting article and site. I wonder what the next steps will be in the process. Gotta help the micro wine making community for sure.
The links are great to the wineries too. It’s fun to learn more about the wine making community in San Diego.
Thanks.