LAKE COUNTY — A new home winemaking bill got the Legislature”s approval Thursday and could receive Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger”s signature as early as this weekend. The bill would clear up gray area in what author Sen. Pat Wiggins (D ? Santa Rosa) calls an “antiquated law.”
The law states it”s illegal to take homemade wine away from the property where it was produced, meaning the hundreds of home winemaking festivals ? including Kelseyville”s ? are technically illegal.
The flaw in the law came to light when a winemaker from Illinois contacted the California department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to see about rules and regulations regarding a competition he planned in Santa Rosa this summer. ABC pointed out that, under existing state law, home winemaker festivals are illegal.
The problem stemmed from a section of the state”s business and professions code designed to allow people to produce small quantities of wine at home ? a carryover from the repeal of Prohibition.
“That language, however well-intentioned, is badly outdated,” Wiggins said. “It fails to reflect what we have learned from decades of experience ? that home winemaker competitions can be safe, that they can be held responsibly, and that they can contribute greatly to the experience that is California wine.”
Stephen Chambers, executive director of the Western Fairs Association, which is co-sponsoring SB 607 with the Family Winemakers of California said with the peak of the fair season almost underway for the more than 50 fairs that host home winemaking competitions, the bill is an “urgency issue.”
“We realize that amateur wine competitions are a small piece of the puzzle, but they are, nonetheless, a piece that completes the picture for many fairs throughout the state.”
Current law defines “winegrower” as any person who has the facilities and equipment for the conversion of fruit into wine and is engaged in the production of wine, except for those who produce less than 200 gallons of wine per year for personal consumption. The bill would expand the definition of a winegrower by removing that exception.
And it will add the word “wine” to existing law allowing homemade beer to be entered into competitions at organized affairs, exhibition or competitions.
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
