“Olive oil, jams, wines—we do the whole thing,” says Steve Gliessman, proprietor of Condors Hope wines. Having sold his wines at the Westside farmers market for several years, Gliessman says it’s an excellent fit. “We can tell our story directly to the consumer, what it means to us as a family,” he says. “This is a relationship, not just a product. People want to know where their food comes from, and here they can get the in-person story.”
Gliessman, founding director of UCSC’s agroecology program, believes other winemakers will undoubtedly want to sell their wines at farmers markets too.
What about not being able to taste the wine, I ask?
“That’s why it’s important that the growers themselves be there,” he admits. “We can tell the whole story from field to bottle, and we can talk about the importance of growing organically.”
Greg Nolten has been selling wines at the Felton farmers market for the past five years, gaining additional visibility for his Zayante Vineyards brand.
“We get a lot of tourists in the summer,” he says, “and locals see that we grow our own grapes—and they like that.” After years of doing the Felton market, Nolten says he feels “a real part of the community.“
Winemaker Richard Alfaro, who’s been in talks with Dhillon about plans for a farmers market wine booth, agrees that the farmers markets are “a great thing for local winegrowers. I’m definitely planning on participating in the downtown market,” he says. He admits, however, that “it’s a bummer we can’t give samples of the wine. In other states they have started allowing samples—so there’s hope for the future.”
Limited hope, as it turns out. In Los Angeles, the main farmers market is served by adjacent beer and wine bars with their own licenses. Last September the state of Maryland allowed the first winery to participate in a farmers market and offer tastes. The process is cumbersome, however, and slow to gain legislative approval.
In Washington State a recent initiative came before the legislature to allow a pilot program for winetasting at farmers markets. A target number of wineries would be able to offer limited tastings at markets during the summer months under strict controls, such as size of samples, amount per customer and a requirement that food be present at the tasting table.
“We have a lot of small family-run wineries now in the state, and we wanted to broaden the business setting in which we can operate,” says winemaker Marty Clubb, president of the Washington Wine Institute, the wine industry’s lobbying group in Olympia.
Unfortunately the initiative did not get to a vote during the most recent session. “There was support for the initiative, Clubb tells Santa Cruz Weekly, “but there were big budget battles ahead of our bill, and they took precedence. So our initiative fell off the table.”
Clubb will resubmit the initiative during the next legislative session at the start of 2011. “I think this will happen,” he says, “but we have to wait until the next go-round.”
Here’s to California following Washington’s lead and pouring on the flavor at the market.
