A lot of changes in the wine industry over the last several years, some being serious challenges to their long-term survival. Here's one example amongst many affecting particularly small, multigenerational, family, wineries.
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By Jess Lander, Wine reporter March 21, 2025
Like many small Napa Valley wineries, Dalla Valle Vineyards, one of the region’s most famous cult Cabernet producers, doesn’t have a public tasting room. The local government prohibits it from hosting visitors at its estate.
Without the ability to pour its wines for consumers, Dalla Valle has relied heavily on what winemaker Maya Dalla Valle and others refer to as “trade visits” with people in the industry, such as distributors, importers, restaurants and journalists. A standard practice for decades, these trade visits are typically how small wineries market their wines and get wholesale placements.
But after nearly 40 years of business, Dalla Valle fears it must suddenly halt this vital business activity, citing what it sees as a major Napa County policy change to start counting trade tastings like other winery tastings.
‘It doesn’t seem fair’: Small Napa wineries fear local government could deal another blow to their s
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