Under new law, wine tasting now allowed at farmers markets

Visitors to one of the North Bay’s many certified farmers markets can sample any number of locally-grown fruits and vegetables before deciding what to buy.

But although wine is the region’s dominant agricultural commodity, tasting wine and cider has been outlawed at farmers markets locally and throughout California.

Gov. Jerry Brown lifted that prohibition this week, signing legislation that immediately gives market managers the ability to allow tastings of wines and ciders, albeit on a limited basis.

The bill’s author, Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, said alcohol producers expressed frustration about being unable to let consumers sample their wares at events that ostensibly are geared toward spotlighting local fare.

Levine said with the change in the law, consumers “now can taste all the hard work and effort” that went into wine or cider produced by smaller-scale operators.

Assembly Bill 2488 takes effect immediately to allow certified farmers market sales during the current season.

Only one winery on any given day may offer tastings. Additionally, the grower is limited to pour no more than three ounces of wine or cider per adult consumer.

Levine said the restrictions are necessary to ensure tastings are conducted in a “responsible manner” and to limit liability for market managers, who have the discretion to allow tastings at their specific event.

Wine and cider producers already can legally sell bottles of their product at farmers markets once they obtain a supplemental license from state alcohol regulators and gain approval from market managers. The California Department of Food and Agriculture must also certify that the fruit is grown locally.

Frank Egger, owner of Cazadero Winery, said the law change “will provide an opportunity for folks to taste our wine.”

“We don’t have a tasting room. What we do is public tastings at events,” Egger said.

Jon Phillips, owner of Inspiration Vineyards in Santa Rosa, said he doesn’t see farmers markets becoming awash in alcohol as a result of the change, as some critics of Levine’s bill fear will be the case.

“The fact we are limited to just one producer and three ounces is a very different focus than an art and wine festival,” Phillips said.

He said he’s asked the managers of the West End Farmers Market, held Sundays in Santa Rosa, for permission to allow sampling of his wines.

Santa Rosa’s Wednesday Night Market already offers patrons the ability to purchase wine tastings at a designated garden area on D Street.

Under Levine’s bill, managers can now let wine and cider producers host tastings - either paid or complimentary - within the area of the Wednesday event designated for the farmer’s market itself, on E Street in front of the city’s central library.

The goal would be to attract people who might otherwise shy away from a more formal wine garden setting, said Sierra Tobler, a member of the market’s Board of Directors.

“We’re very excited about what it might bring to the Wednesday Night Market,” she said.

Phillips said the onus of ensuring that people are of legal age to taste will fall on winery staff, as has been the case up to now when people purchase a bottle.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @deadlinederek.