As cannabis emerges as a burgeoning and profitable crop in California, its path out of the shadows has been rocky and inconsistent in areas where the wine grape has been dominant.
Both Sonoma and Mendocino counties this month are taking steps to write rules for commercial cultivation of a cannabis plant that had an estimated $4.4 billion in legal sales last year statewide. In addition, retail dispensaries and processing plants are already part of a growing regional infrastructure.
Yet, Napa County remains an outlier. There’s an increasingly more contentious debate between the upstart cannabis industry that has finally become legitimate and the conservative wine sector protective of its “Napa Valley” multibillion-dollar brand it fears would be sullied by cannabis farms. However, certain Napa wineries see the lucrative business opportunities of adding cannabis to their wine enterprises.
Politically connected opponents have continued to thwart any attempts there to establish new ground rules for growing commercial cannabis amid fears of effects on the wine industry. Napa County has the highest valued wine grapes annually in the United States, as much as $1 billion in value during normal harvests not hurt by wildfires or other extreme weather.
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