A Napa County Superior Court judge has sided with Napa County in a legal fight over a winery permit for Bonny’s Vineyard in Oakville, ending a challenge that argued the project would drain groundwater from an adjacent creek. The ruling, announced by the county on Thursday, upholds the Board of Supervisors’ approval of the use permit and clears a major legal hurdle for the Meyer family’s planned winery on Skellenger Lane.
The County of Napa confirmed the court’s decision, which resolves a lawsuit brought by environmental group Water Audit California against the county’s approval process. The organization had argued that groundwater extraction for the winery would deplete flows in Conn Creek, which borders the western edge of the 25.41-acre property, and would harm fish habitat and local water availability, according to Patch.
A recent ruling issued by the Napa County Superior Court favors Napa County in a lawsuit challenging the Napa County Board of Supervisors approval of a use permit for Bonny’s Vineyard https://t.co/k4Jzyea3fnpic.twitter.com/yTZTTUr232
— Napa County (@NapaCountyGov) August 27, 2026
The approved project authorizes a 10,996-square-foot winery structure capable of producing 30,000 gallons of wine per year, with six full-time employees and up to 45 daily visitors for appointment-only tastings, plus hosted marketing events, per county planning documents. The property has a long agricultural history, with cultivation dating to the 1940s and active vineyards farmed there since the 1980s, and it sits within Napa County’s Agricultural Preserve as designated Agricultural Resource land.
A Two-Year Path Through Planning and Appeals
The Napa County Planning Commission first approved the winery use permit and an accompanying Mitigated Negative Declaration back in December 2024. Water Audit California appealed that approval to the Board of Supervisors, which upheld the permit in June 2025 before the group escalated its challenge to the Superior Court…