Ramona Valley Vineyard Association

By Union-Tribune Editorial Board

Thursday, October 21, 2010 at midnight

A cottage industry is quietly emerging in San Diego County. There are now more than 60 wineries. In San Diego County, mind you, not counting neighboring Temecula Valley.

The industry is small, with the grapes grown here valued at $900,000 and the wines at retail about $14 million. But recent plantings of vines and demand for California wines augur well. So does passage by county supervisors of an ordinance to allow local growers to have tasting rooms and limited sales on their property for the first time. That’s in litigation at the moment.

San Diego County wineries tend to be small and producers may augment their harvest with grapes from California’s better-known regions or Baja’s Guadalupe Valley. Many local winemakers do this as an avocation, one spouse tending by day to a different business, the other to the winery. Others, to survive financially, must also get involved in distribution. But if their volume is small, distributors are not interested. They must market directly to wine shops, restaurants, at wine festivals and by donating to charity events.

San Diego County wines are not widely recognized yet, but they could be. Paso Robles once had just 20 wineries; now it has 200.

You may call our wines undiscovered, but not necessarily unappreciated. North Poway’s Old Coach line has won three dozen awards. Upscale restaurants offer Gloriosa and Milagro Farms varietals. Progressive stores carry our wines: several Albertsons, Whole Foods, Stumps, the Santee Costco, Crepes and Corks in Del Mar and the Alpine Inn. But not nearly enough give our own as much as a try.

Some local names are known in wine circles already: Orfila, San Pasqual, Bernardo and La Serenissima. Others are not as familiar: Rock Canyon, Belle Marie, Dube, Woof ‘n Rose or Witch Creek. Thirty-two names can be found at sandiegowineries.org. Others take more sleuthing. Recent arrivals include urban wineries without their own grapes, the industry’s version of microbreweries. Think Carruth Cellars of Solana Beach.

If San Diego County winemakers prosper, the agricultural way of life in our backcountry may be preserved instead of falling victim to hopscotch housing tracts. Wine grapes, by the way, need just a third of the water as citrus or avocados.

But our cottage industry may wilt if backcountry neighbors sue neighbors for pursuing their livelihood with a tasting room. Prosperity won’t come unless consumers walk into the neighborhood wine shop or our favorite restaurant and ask: “Do you carry any San Diego County wines?” And, “Really. Why not?”

Any wine enthusiast, casual or sophisticated, is delighted to find an appealing and undiscovered wine. May we suggest that may be the case – 60 times over – with San Diego County wines.