Today I made my 732nd visit, tasting and review with a unique Napa producer over the past nearly 7 years. Reflecting on all my visits to Napa wineries that have “gone away” since I’ve been working on this project, and all the new ones I keep coming across – I thought it would be interesting to check in on the government bodies that oversee various wine licensing – both federal and state. I have archived reviews of nearly 60 Napa producers who are no longer making wine commercially and there has been at least another 50 I’ve removed from my master list who have stopped producing (producers I never even had a chance to review).
It has been four years since I checked in to the latest winery and license numbers from the TTB and ABC. My last update came from mid 2009 – at that time the TTB showed 655 permits within Napa County for production, bottling, importation or distribution of
beverage alcohol products.
The California ABC at that time showed 630 Typo 02 licenses – Napa County has the most Type 02 licenses issued for winegrowers of any county in the State of California.
I’ve been well aware that the Napa numbers keep spiraling upwards at an incredible rate. One vintner told me that in the late 1980’s / early 1990’s the Napa Vintners used to maintain about 100 members – some would leave and new ones would join to keep the number right about that. In the last 2 years we have seen their numbers also increase dramatically – now they are close to 500 members!
But here are the numbers that really go crazy – in four years the TTB now shows 883 permits within Napa County for production, bottling, importation or distribution of beverage alcohol products.
And the California ABC now shows a whopping 1263 Type 02 licenses in Napa County – nearly double over what it was just 4 years ago!
“Everyone” does want a piece of this prized terroir.
Here are the reference links:
TTB: www.ttb.gov/foia/xls/frl-wine-producers-and-blenders-ca-napa.htm
ABC: www.abc.ca.gov/datport/SubAnnStatRep.pdf
Leave a Reply