MOSES LAKE — A bill doubling the number of tasting rooms a winery can operate passed the Senate this week.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, was designed to give small wineries more opportunities to sell their wares.
“It expands their customer base,” Warnick said. “They have a marketing problem when all the big wineries can get into the grocery stores and sponsor events and that type of thing. Small wineries don’t always have that opportunity.”
The current law allows business owners to have two tasting room locations. This bill, SB5426, would increase the number of tasting rooms and retail locations to four.
Mike Thiede, who owns Ginkgo Forest winery in Mattawa, said this legislation will be very helpful for small wineries. Thiede said for small wineries, selling directly to the customer through a tasting room, which is often the only way they sell their products, is more profitable than dealing with a distributor.
“It’s very big for small wineries,” Theide said. “They don’t have access to distributors like the big wineries, they have to sell through their tasting rooms.”
Thiede also said the amount of work that goes into opening a tasting room is much more manageable than the effort it takes to build another winery location.
Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, voted against the bill when it was introduced on the Senate floor. He said the Majority Coalition Caucus, which Warnick is a member, had introduced a series of bills that encouraged social alcohol consumption in public places. He said he supported Washington’s wine industry, but could not support the normalization of drinking in public places.
A companion bill sponsored by Rep. Cary Condotta, R-Chelan, was voted through the House and received its first reading in the Commerce, Labor and Sports committee last week.
Warnick’s bill will now proceed to the House for further consideration.
