Wine Country Times

The Wine Country Coalition, a collection of local restaurants and bars in Sonoma and Napa Valley, aims to fight the "corrosion of truth" surrounding indoor outdoor dining and wine tasting bans across California. 

The coalition consists of over 50 wineries, restaurants, tasting rooms and suppliers in Napa and Sonoma Counties as well as the Bay Area, PR Newswire reported.

"At first, we were just trying to come up with ideas on how we could support each other and to try and make it through the shutdown together. After a few meetings, however, it became clear to all of us that we had to act more urgently to save our small businesses," Carl Dene of the Wine Country Coalition told the Times. 

Dene said that they've been especially concerned for their employees, who have been devastated by furloughs and layoffs. 

"We knew we had to do something quickly. So the coalition was formed, and we filed this lawsuit," he said.

The lawsuit in which Dene is referring to seeks to roll back a series of bans enacted in December 2020, which the coalition views as arbitrary and unfairly targets businesses already struggling to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Dene believes the Californian wine sector will struggle to bounce back due to the regulations and coronavirus economy. 

"It’s clear that the local industry will never fully bounce back, at least not the same as it once was. We’ve already lost too many iconic restaurants and wineries after they had to close for good, and our employees, who are skilled and very difficult to replace, are leaving in droves every day in search of new employment," Dene said. 

The coalition urges policymakers to consult the science surrounding outdoor dining and wine tasting, instead of placing arbitrary regulations.

"There’s been this corrosion of truth, and there will continue to be this corrosion the longer that our public officials say restaurants and wineries are unsafe to visit," Dene said. 

It remains to be seen whether the coalition's lawsuit will yield any substantive changes in California's coronavirus policy.