Fasten your seat belts, kids, it’s going to be a bumpy ride in Sonoma County. An advisory committee wants one more tax on wine, guided by a mis-steering committee. This group wants a special new tax on wine. KTVU has the story at length.

The Sonoma County Vintners has memberships for that already, right? This committee might just need to work on a budget more closely, cut the fat as they say. They’ve got the talent, they just need to brainstorm. Remember, this is why people buy wine imports, BTW, because they’re really affordable versus continually jacking up prices. Could this even be a reason why wine sales are down?

Consider This A Letter To An Editor

This morning, as I was breezing through Facebook, I fell upon a comment from Adam Lee, which put me right into a tailspin, over a suggestion for just another reason to not shop in retail anymore. A new tax for small wineries is being suggested. And Adam seemed like he was speaking for me, as regards my clients, too, and why some do sell out to bigger companies. I’ll bet oligopolies just love this idea. The more they can’t afford to sell their wines to consumers, the more they turn to corporation to alleviate their burdens. It gives them even more brands to build their portfolios.

Letter to the Editor

There is a Petition Against The Wine Improvement District (WID) In Sonoma County, for anyone interested.

A Great Question

The question was asked on Facebook: “I’d love to hear more insights on today’s headline.” As a DTC-only (Direct to Consumer) winery that produces less than 1,000 cases, this article sheds light on three-tiered wineries that would undoubtedly thrive with national media campaigns. It appears to be a tax that would be great for national store brands, but how would it impact small DTC wineries?

Adam Lee’s Winery

Adam Lee’s Provocative Response

“I sent this to the Press Democrat. Reach out to me if you’re interested in learning more about next steps.

“If I told you I wanted to make wine more accessible and find new wine fans, whille my plan to do this was to raise wine prices—you’d think I was out of my mind. That’s exactly what the Sonoma County Winegrowers and Sonoma County Vintners dare asking us to believe.

“Yesterday, these two groups announced plans to form a Wine Improvement District (WID)—a proposal to assess a fee on all direct-to-consumer winery sales in Sonoma County. According to them, a “steering committee of regional leaders” has been formed to explore the concept. But let’s be clear. This isn’t about exploring whether a WID is a good idea. It’s about executing the plan and selling us on the notion that higher prices will somehow benefit Sonoma County wineries.”

It continues without quotation marks, but it is all directly quoted from Mr. Lee.

Wineries are facing challenges like never

Just Look At The Language

Just look at the Sonoma County Winegrowers’ own language. “Our industry is facing challenges like never before. We must reverse the decline and grow the overall wine category now… Through the WID, we will be able to secure a significant, stable supply of funding needed to promote Sonoma County throughout the country and around the world.”

In other words, they’ve already made up their minds. The “exploration” phase is just optics.

Making an Effort?

Genuine?

If they were genuinely trying to understand the impact of such a move, they might look south—at Temecula, where a similar WID has been in place since 2021. The Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association established a 1% assessment on gross winery sales, with the stated goal of funding regional marketing efforts. Now, four years later, they’re debating not only whether to renew the WID, but whether to increase it.

That’s not so clear.

In June 2025, a TVWA board member expressed frustration that there was no defined benchmark for return on investment. One board member even asked what ROI success looked like—no one had an answer. Meanwhile, a record number of Temecula Valley wineries are for sale.

So, What Did Their WID Actually Fund?

Wine writer trips, digital ads, and social media outreach. Hardly revolutionary. Now, Sonoma County isn’t Temecula, and perhaps our steering committee has bolder ideas. But when you revisit the Sonoma WID proposal page, what do you find? “Efforts to promote Sonoma County can include media relations, print and digital advertising, special events, sales efforts…” Sound familiar? It should. It’s the same stale marketing plan.

The issue isn’t a lack of money—it’s a lack of new ideas.

Success happened

An Effort Was Made

In January 2024, I suggested one: a “throwback day” for wine tasting fees. I proposed that on Sunday, November 3rd—the day we turn back our clocks—wineries roll back their tasting fees to just $20. The idea was simple: bring new people in with lower prices, even for a day, and remind them why they love wine. What answer did I get from Sonoma County Vinters? Crickets.

Thankfully, a few local wineries took the initiative on their own. DeLoach now offers no-cost tastings on Thursdays and Sundays. Kendall-Jackson and La Crema host free social hour tastings. They’re finding ways to build community—without tacking on fees.

Maybe my idea wasn’t perfect. Or maybe it doesn’t scale. But at least it was something. Because asking consumers to pay more without clearly defining why—or what success even looks like—is a losing strategy.

If the Sonoma County Winegrowers and Vintners want our support, they need to do better. They need specific goals, innovative ideas, and honest assessments of what’s working. Until then, this WID proposal is just another tax wrapped in recycled buzzwords—and wineries in Sonoma County should oppose it.

“In just five years, the Temecula Valley wine region grew its direct-to-consumer sales by 88% and its paid tastings by 75%.” Those numbers are impressive—on paper. In a struggling wine economy, any model that boosts DTC sales and visitation by that much deserves serious consideration.

But do those results hold up under scrutiny?

The source of these statistics is the Temecula Valley Wine Country Economic Impact Report 2024, prepared by independent analyst Vince Vasquez, and it compares findings with a 2019 report by Dean Runyan Associates.

I’ve reviewed both reports, and several concerns emerge:

• The 2019 report gathered DTC revenue from just 19 wineries—less than half of Temecula’s total—via direct surveys. In 2024, only 21 wineries responded. To fill the gaps, the newer report supplemented responses with sales data (some modeled) from Dun & Bradstreet for roughly 24 additional wineries. In other words, a significant chunk of the data was estimated – and the increase in sales could have come entirely from those estimates.
• It’s unclear whether similar modeling was applied to the 75% increase in paid tastings. But while those tastings reportedly grew, the 2024 report also shows a drop of nearly 300,000 “other visits” (which includes non-paid tastings) and a decrease of nearly 40,000 winery-related hotel stays.

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Written by Jo Diaz, a partner of Diaz Communications, who is helping to make stars realize their dreams. Edited by partner Jose Diaz. To reprint, please contact Jo Diaz: jo@diaz-communications.com