In 2013, Santa Barbara County’s wine grapes and their related services and suppliers created an economic impact of more than $1.7 billion, according to research released last week.
In “The Economic Impact of Santa Barbara County’s Wine and Grapes, 2013,” St. Helena-based Stonebridge Research Group provided the most current research on the county’s grape industry, using data gained from multiple sources.
Stonebridge prepared the 27-page report for the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association (Santa Barbara Vintners), which released the information Jan. 5 during its annual membership meeting at Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort in Solvang.
The cold truth: Santa Barbara County could gain an additional $1.2 billion in revenue if more grapes grown here were turned into wine here.
The county is giving away nearly $1.2 billion in value, more than 2,200 jobs and nearly $26.8 million in state and local tax revenue when grapes are shipped elsewhere for wine storage and production, according to the report.
In 2014, nearly half of Santa Barbara County’s total wine grape tonnage was taken elsewhere to be made into wine, its authors wrote.
If just 20 percent of those grapes trucked out of the county stayed here for production, the economic benefits to Santa Barbara County would increase by $300 million, for a total impact of $2 billion, the report states.
When local grapes end up in wine produced in, say, San Luis Obispo, Monterey or Kern counties, they are often blended by larger producers into “Central Coast” or “California” appellation wines that retail for less than wines sporting an Santa Barbara County-specific AVA such as Sta. Rita Hills, Ballard Canyon or Happy Canyon.
This practice depreciates the value of Santa Barbara County’s wine grapes, the authors wrote.
Why isn’t more wine produced here? Because Santa Barbara County is short on adequate capacity for winemaking, wine bottling and storage — often because winemakers and wineries run up against county regulations, according to the report.
Stonebridge cited its sources: the Santa Barbara County Agricultural Commissioner, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, industry interviews and winery numbers from both the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) of the Treasury Department.
The new statistics, long overdue, will prove useful for the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association and the greater local wine industry when the county’s planning commission considers an update to the winery ordinance later this year. Revisions to the current ordinance started in 2012 and have since been the subject of a handful of public hearings.
In a nutshell, the winery ordinance project includes potential amendments to winery permits and developmental rules, and would update standards via three categories:
» Tasting room and event activities
» Food service and winery kitchen facilities
» Sale of wine-related items
In addition, ordinance revisions would also set standards for minimum premise size and planted vineyard acreage for winery tasting rooms and events, parameters for the assessment of effects of proposed wineries and for monitoring of the industry, according to the county.
Among the highlights in the Stonebridge report:
» The number of licensed wineries in Santa Barbara County: 191
» Revenue from wines in Santa Barbara County: $271.5 million
» Case production: 2.8 million
» Total vineyard acreage: 27,155
» Value of Santa Barbara County wine grape crop: $163.4 million
» Number of full-time equivalent jobs related to the wine industry: 9,158
» Wine industry-related tourism expenditures: $205.4 million
» Number of wine-industry related visitors: 860,000
» State and local taxes generated by wine-related activities: $93.6 million
» Federal taxes generated: $101.7 million
— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.
The Economic Impact of Santa Barbara’s County’s Wine and Grapes, 2013