When two police decoys walked into Mayo Family Winery's main tasting room on Arnold Drive in Glen Ellen on Saturday, assistant tasting room manager Rich Pe? knew right off the bat something was up.
There were a number of customers at the wooden bar, sampling reds and whites, enjoying Sonoma Valley's beautiful weather just days before the start of harvest. The decoys, posing as a young couple, were "cool, calm and collected," he said.
But they also looked too young.
"I turned them down," Pe? said, adding that when in doubt, he'll always ask for ID.
"Even if they look remotely young, we ask," he said. "There's too much at stake. There's way too much at stake."
The decoys then went on their way as part of a four-hour sting operation that in the end resulted in four out of 10 winery tasting rooms being hit with citations for serving alcohol to the underage decoys. That "batting average," as one winery server described this week, left many in the business scratching heads.
The sting, by some accounts the first such operation targeting Sonoma County's billion-dollar wine industry in many years, was certain to send chills through the more than 250 wineries and tasting rooms in Sonoma County.
It also was a reminder to winery owners and staff that law enforcement operations are not restricted to bars and liquor stores.
"We're not going to let our guard down now," said Mark Huggins, assistant tasting room manager at Kunde Family Estates.
The sting was conducted by the Sonoma Police Department in partnership with the state department of Alcohol Beverage Control. The operation was the first of what are expected to be monthly stings targeting Sonoma Valley businesses that sell alcohol.
Funded through a $25,000 law enforcement grant, the operations will be conducted until June 2012 and could include more decoy or shoulder tap-type stings, said Sonoma Police Sgt. Spencer Crum.
The wineries where employees were cited were Valley of the Moon Winery, B.R. Cohn Winery, Imagery Estate Winery and Schug Winery. The wineries will be referred to the ABC for administrative sanctions, Crum said.
The reaction at wineries in Sonoma Valley was surprise and disappointment. In an email, Bruce Cohn, founder of B.R. Cohn, called it an "unfortunate situation."
"Our tasting room manager is diligent in reminding our servers to check IDs if any customers looks under 40 years old," Cohn wrote. "We have a zero tolerance for serving minors and the server involved was dismissed."
Emily Aschbrenner, a spokeswoman for Imagery, a label of Joe Benziger of the Benziger Family, said "we regret the oversight that transpired over the weekend during the peak busy hours of our tasting room, and reaffirm our commitment to the proper edification of our staff."
Aschbrenner said tasting room workers at Imagery receive training and education on "responsible hospitality," which is essentially knowing when to say no to someone who has had too much to drink or is too young to drink.
Honore Comfort, executive director of Sonoma County Vintners, a member organization that promotes Sonoma County's wine industry, said many of the area's vintners participate in such training.
"There's a very strong commitment to responsible hospitality within this industry."
So why were four out of 10 winery employees cited?
"That surprises me," said Pe? of Mayo Family Winery. "Why aren't they paying attention?"
Asked if the police department was done with wine tasting rooms and would move on to other establishments that sell alcohol, Crum said, "Oh no, we're never done."
"We will be conducting more operations," he said. "We'll be targeting any establishment that is licensed by ABC."
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