State Wine Commission Toasts Self Goodby
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SAN FRANCISCO — The California Wine Commission, the major marketing tool of the state’s $6-billion wine industry, has voted itself out of existence, the Department of Food and Agriculture reported. The vote announced Thursday was 125 to 111.
Smaller wineries protested that the commission dictated overall industry policy even though members represented only 11% of the more than 700 wineries in the state. Only those wineries that crush more than 100 tons of grapes a season were eligible to vote on industry matters.
The immediate effect of the commission’s demise could be a cutoff of about $6 million a year for the Wine Institute, a private trade organization of the industry.
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