Wine at Farmers Markets

In many of our presentations we talked about selling wine at markets, from outdoor food halls to music festivals. In reading about the laws that govern some of this commerce, I discovered that, just five years ago, California Governor Jerry Brown signed AB2488, a bill that allows farmers markets to offer tastings of wines and ciders. Of course, the bill included a few restrictions that I thought folks might find interesting:

• Wineries and cidermakers must apply for a permit through the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
• Wine and ciders must be produced from fruit grown and bottled by the winery and the tastings must be done by the permit holder, a family member or an employee
• Wine sellers may not sell more than 5,000 gallons of wine annually and may not serve an individual customer more than 3 ounces a day

Before this bill was passed, a "Type 02" licensed winegrower could apply for a “Certified Farmers’ Market Sales Permit” (Type 79) which would allow the winegrower to sell wine at farmers’ markets, as long as the wine was:

• produced entirely from grapes grown by the licensee
• bottled by the licensee

Though this was an exciting development, it's unfortunate that such a bill still precludes wineries who buy grapes, but otherwise produce and bottle their own wine from being able to engage directly with potential customers.

Source:

https://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-governor-brown-signs-off-on-wine-tastings-at-farmers-markets-20140710-story.html

https://www.dpf-law.com/blogs/lex-vini/new-california-law-allows-wine-tastings-farmers-markets/