Winery Ordinances...

Since Ramona is becoming an up and coming wine region, where are all the tasting rooms, like you see in Temecula or Napa?

In order to sell their wine, a winery must be bonded with the Federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), and licensed by the State of California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. If a winery is located in an unincorporated area of the county of San Diego, it must obtain a major use permit or an administrative use permit to operate a public tasting room. The winery may operate as a Limited Wholesale Winery in San Diego if it grows at least 25% of the grapes used in making its wine, is located on land that is zoned for agricultural use (A-70 and A-72), and makes less than 7,500 gallons of wine per year. As a Limited Wholesale Winery, it may sell wine to retailers for resale. It may only sell directly to customers through telephone and web sales.

Since use permits, and the process of obtaining them, in San Diego County are extremely expensive (ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars), small wineries typically are not able to afford to open public wine tasting rooms. In fact, there is only one legal tasting room in Ramona. So, although there are several bonded wineries in the Ramona AVA, and among the RVVA's members, the public is not able to visit them. The RVVA is working closely with the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to amend the Winery Ordinance to allow "by right" operation of tasting rooms for small, Boutique wineries that meet specific criteria.