Napa grand jury suggests more comprehensive winery audits

Blog note: We posted this article on May 29 when it appeared in the Napa Valley Register. We post it again, because it has been published by at least three other newspapers outside Napa County: this posting from The Washington Times (3,000 miles away), The San Luis Obispo Tribune, and The Long Beach Press-Telegram). That merits special recognition.

NAPA, Calif. (AP) - With about 350 active wineries in Napa County, a grand jury is ordering officials to go farther than the county’s current policy of auditing 20 wineries at random in one of the world’s top wine regions.

A new Napa County grand jury report says the small number of wineries checked out combined with audits of a limited scope may not give a full picture of whether the businesses are complying with regulations, including one requiring them to get at least three-quarters of their grapes from Napa County, the Napa Valley Register reported (http://bit.ly/1AClHLY ).

The county government has yet to come up with its response to the report, Planning, Building and Environmental Services Director David Morrison said Tuesday.

The grand jury suggested Napa County instead audit each winery every five years, or at another interval approved by the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. The grand jury also recommended the county reveal the identities of wineries that fail to receive a clean audit.

The county winery audits looks at issues including whether wineries are following their permitted requirements on wine production and visitor limits. Inspectors also look at whether those wineries required to obtain at least 75 percent of their grapes from Napa County are actually doing so. Last year, only one of the 20 wineries surveyed fell short on the 75 percent threshold.

Napa County Supervisor Mark Luce earlier this year suggested a “wall of shame” for those wineries that fail to meet county standards. “I think that’s what people really care about - their reputations,” Luce said then.

Overall, up to 40 percent of the wineries in the annual audits between 2011 and 2013 fell short on at least one standard in their county use-permit, the grand jury report said.

Information from: The Napa Valley Register, http://www.napavalleyregister.com

May 29, 2015

The Washington Times

By Associated Press