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California’s wineries are eager to welcome back visitors since the state lifted its bans on outdoor dining and wine tasting, but the COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting the industry.
Wine Road, an association of wineries and lodgings in northern Sonoma County, announced on Wednesday that it won’t be able to hold its annual Barrel Tasting weekend over the first weekend of March as it normally does. This is because local health regulations don’t allow visitors into wine cellars to taste the barrel samples. Instead, some of the group’s wineries will be opening their "libraries" of hard-to-find wines for outdoor tasting.
The wineries’ libraries consist of past vintages held in reserve for release years after they originally debuted.
Some California wineries will be opening their "libraries" of hard-to-find wines for outdoor tasting. (Wine Road)
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Visitors to the wineries will need reservations. Other safety protocols like outdoor seating, social distancing and masks when not seated will also be in place.
Beth Costa, executive director of Wine Road, said the safety of guests is the wineries’ top priority.
"Realistically, due to statewide COVID-19 restrictions, we will not be able to have large groups of people indoors by the first weekend of March to hold our annual Barrel Tasting event," Costa said in a written statement. "However, we still wanted to commemorate the weekend that has been a 44-year tradition in Sonoma County by having our member wineries unite to offer visitors something special – in this case – rare library wines."
The wineries’ libraries consist of past vintages held in reserve for release years after they originally debuted. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)
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Some of the participating wineries include Moshin Vineyards, Dutton Estate and GC Lurton Vineyards. Wine Road said it would post the full list on its website later this month.
California added new regional COVID-19 restrictions in December amid surging virus cases and hospitalizations. Those rules banned outdoor dining and wine tasting, prompting a lawsuit from a group of wineries, restaurants and related businesses in Napa and Sonoma counties alleging the ban was "arbitrary, irrational and unfair."
Visitors to the wineries will need reservations. Other safety protocols like outdoor seating, social distancing and masks when not seated will also be in place. (iStock)
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The state ended its stay-home order six days later, allowing outdoor dining and wine tasting to return.
Wine Road said it hoped it would still be able to hold a scaled down version of its annual Barrel Tasting event in May, if conditions have further improved by then.