The idea sounded simple enough: add one percent to every tasting room bill in Sonoma County and put the money toward marketing our wines. That’s the Wine Business Improvement District — or WID — that Sonoma County Winegrowers and Sonoma County Vintners floated in July. But less than a month later, the plan is on ice.
The pause doesn’t mean the WID is dead. What it does show is just how split our wine community is over how to pay for the fight ahead.
Why a WID?
Everyone knows the industry is hurting. Sales are soft, demand is shifting, and growers are watching fruit hang unpicked. Last year about a third of Sonoma’s crop never found a buyer. Vines are coming out across the county.
Winegrowers president Karissa Kruse framed it bluntly in July: “Doing more of the same will not work.” The WID was meant to pool millions of new dollars into collective marketing — campaigns, events, ads — to bring visitors back and boost direct-to-consumer sales…