A vintner pours tastings of wine | Getty Napa Valley anxious after Newsom calls for halt to wine tasting

Napa Valley businesses already grappling with the economic fallout of coronavirus are bracing for further impact after Gov. Gavin Newsom called Sunday on all wine tasting rooms to close.

While the effects of Newsom’s announcement are likely to be felt across the state, the decision could be particularly crippling in Napa and surrounding North Bay communities, where local economies are overwhelming driven by the wine industry.


According to estimates from the Napa Valley Vintners, wine production and the accompanying tourism industry account for 44,000 jobs in Napa County, which has a population of just over 140,000.

“We are very concerned about the impact this will have on the industry and our economy as a whole,” said Ryan Klobas, CEO of the Napa County Farm Bureau. “This affects everyone from larger operations to the small family farmer. Agriculture is the heart and soul of Napa County and when you affect one part of the industry, all parts become equally affected.”

Newsom, who himself owns a wine business, targeted alcohol-based establishments in his announcement, calling them “a non-essential function in our state.” He stopped short of calling on restaurants to close, instead asking them to halve their capacities.

That distinction was an immediate point of concern for Stephanie Honig, director of communications and sales for Honig Vineyard and Winery, who felt the state was stepping in to pick winners and losers.

“Why should the government determine that pubs and clubs and wineries close, but restaurants and retail stores should not?” she said. “If we are at that point, then we should go into what Italy and Spain are doing.”

Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), who represents much of the North Bay’s wine country, said that while he understood this concern, restaurants play a critical function for many Californians that wineries do not.

“In many cases, restaurants provide a lifeline for people who can't cook healthy meals,” he said.

Newsom did not include an enforcement mechanism with his directive, but said he believes establishments will comply on their own.

Still, some vintners say they plan to keep their doors open for the time being. Honig said the Rutherford tasting room typically seats 10 customers per hour and has ample space to separate groups.

“Our employees need to have some kind of normalcy and an income,” she said. “So, for the time being, we're not planning on closing. Obviously, we'll continue to operate at the very high level of cleanliness and care that we always operate at.”

Other wineries, like Hook and Ladder in nearby Santa Rosa, have already made the decision to temporarily shut down their tasting rooms, citing concerns about “limiting public interaction and promoting ‘social distancing.’”

Dodd praised Newsom for his decision but acknowledged that it’s hard knowing constituents will likely be hurt by it.

“If these types of recommendations and guidelines are not put in place, it just really makes it easier for people to say, hey, we don't have a problem here,” Dodd said. ‘We may not have a critical problem here, but very easily, very quickly we could.”

According to Dodd, Napa Valley businesses already saw decreases in tourism last month by double-digit percentages, as panic over the coronavirus spread across the country. Along with wineries themselves, the hotel, restaurant and transportation industries have taken a major hit.

The economy of the North Bay region as a whole has been hampered by a series of emergencies over the last few years, including massive wildfires and widespread power shutoffs.

“It's really going to cause some businesses to rethink how they move forward,” Dodd said. “Our industries have taken a big hit with these disasters that just seemingly continue to plague our agritourism.”