Napa authorities – and several of the region’s wineries – have been ordered to attend court, but no one is quite sure why.
By W. Blake Gray | 13-Feb-2024 | Wine-Searcher |
….Lindsay Hoopes’ battle with Napa County over her right to hold tastings at her small winery Hoopes Family Vineyard continued in court all last week. It’s a battle over small things that have huge implications.
In 2017, Hoopes, a former San Francisco homicide prosecutor, bought the former Hopper Creek winery near Yountville. Hopper Creek had been licensed as a small winery before Napa County passed its Winery Definition Ordinance in 1990. Hoopes told the court multiple times that her right to have visitors was grandfathered in with the property she bought, which received approval from the county to open in 1984. The county wanted Hoopes to apply for a use permit to make renovations to the property, but she has refused.
Much of the testimony has focused on minutiae: what kind of trinkets are sold at the property, for example. But the crux of it is whether Hoopes selling customers two bottles of wine (minimum purchase) and letting them drink it on site is a “tasting”, which the county says she has no right to do.
Napa County is taking the Hoopes case seriously enough that it hired an outside law firm and increased its budget with that firm to $1.5 million for this year. And no wonder. It’s not the case itself that matters. Hoopes Family Vineyard is small and even if allowed unlimited visitors, would not make a dent in the county’s traffic. It’s the precedent that matters, on both sides.
“If the county wins and there are substantial damages, it will put a chill on the small wineries in the county, which are already in a quiet environment,” said Stu Smith, co-owner of Smith-Madrone Vineyards. Smith testified on Hoopes’ behalf last week.
Other winery owners are following the case closely but nobody wants to talk about it; I know, because I’ve asked. In part, they are afraid of Hoopes, an aggressive attorney. But at the same time, many of them may wish that Napa County did not wield such power over their operations. Most wineries want limits on winery operations for reasons of environment and traffic – but only for wineries other than their own.
Napa County has plenty of outsider billionaires, like the Halls for example, who have a lot more resources than Hoopes and can jet in a flotilla of lawyers if cracks appear in its regulatory process. I wrote recently about the battle in Napa between environmentalists and the wine industry, but it’s more fair to say that for most, it’s an ongoing balancing act. Most Napa wineries are pro-environment to at least some extent; most environmentalists in Napa have some ties to the wine industry, and they all realize it’s the reason the county is as wealthy as it is. A verdict in favor of Hoopes has the potential to upset that balance. It almost certainly won’t happen this week. Witness testimony ended last week but the judge is holding a hearing about financial issues on Wednesday.
It’s just about mustard season in Napa Valley, when colorful yellow plants burst up everywhere. Driving through Napa at this time of year is as beautiful as any, maybe even more so. But it only looks peaceful. There’s a lot going on under the surface right now. We just don’t know exactly what.