San Diego County Supervisors today passed a Boutique Winery Ordinance. It allows small vineyards in San Diego's backcountry to open wine tasking rooms without expensive permits. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.
Before prohibition, San Diego produced a lot of grapes - and a lot of wine! Now, small wineries in the Ramona Valley are trying to rebuild the industry with tasting rooms to sell directly to consumers. Some local residents are concerned tasting rooms on small, private back roads could lead to problems But Erik Larsen of the San Diego Farm Bureau says the Supervisors resisted the pressure to require environmental impact studies and expensive permits for wine tasting rooms.
Larson: Fortunately the Board of Supervisors kind of cut through all that today and just simplified and said this is an agricultural use on agricultural land and we want to encourage it
The Supervisors say they don't support Wine Tasting rooms selling wine made of grapes grown outside San Diego County.
Alison St John, KPBS News.