A proposal to create a Sonoma County Wine Improvement District to fund marketing efforts through a small fee at wineries was met with such controversy that supporters of the WID put the plan on hold mere weeks after floating the idea.
While the initial fallout from the proposal was divisive within the Sonoma wine industry, the debate ultimately underscored a harsh reality in these challenging dimes of decreasing wine tastings, consumption and revenue—the center cannot hold.
New ideas will be critical for the future of the industry. And, while the WID concept was paused, the debate itself ended up being a net positive for the wine community—sparking a collaborative endeavor between wineries, growers and organizations that is bearing fruit.
The initial proposal for an improvement district that would levy a tax on direct-to-consumer sales was advanced by local industry groups Sonoma County Winegrowers and Sonoma County Vintners in July. It set off fireworks, with debate bubbling over at a Sonoma County Winegrape Commission meeting, with over 800 people signing a petition in opposition.
Since then, a grassroots movement led by a longtime Sonoma County winery owner has given birth to a series of marketing proposals brainstormed by the wine community, at least one of which was implemented almost immediately, with others in the works. Meanwhile, the improvement district proposal is on hold until at least the end of October.
“The good news in all of this is we’re already moving in the right direction,” says Karissa Kruse, president of Sonoma County Winegrowers. “I think for a long time we’ve been in silos and have not been having the hard conversations about what has been happening. Probably neighbors were talking and peers to peers, but we haven’t been having these community-based conversations.”
Kruse was referring to the heart of the matter: The region’s signature industry is facing a slumping market amid sluggish sales and changing demographics. Wine consumption in the United States began decreasing in 2021, according to Wine Spectator magazine.
The pain is being felt across the country and in Sonoma County, with lower tasting room traffic and declining sales combined with supply-side surpluses. In response, some growers have ripped out vines and some wineries had to conduct layoffs.
While the improvement district proposal sparked hot debate, there’s one thing all parties agree on: Something must be done, and quickly, to stem the ongoing downturn in wine consumption that hit the county so hard.
“The goal is more people coming to Sonoma County and visiting the tasting rooms, the wineries, the vineyards,” Kruse notes.
The winegrowers and vintners associations presented the Wine Improvement District proposal as a way to bolster local wine businesses. Ironically, the proposal appears to have united the wine community, first factionally—in support or opposition—and then in collective action.
Adam Lee, producer-owner of Clarice Wine Company and author of the WID opposition petition, called for marketing suggestions in an August Facebook post and got a deluge of ideas.
“The collaborative spirit I’ve seen in the wine community is inspiring,” Lee says.
“I received some three dozen ideas in two days. People jumped at the chance to help shape the marketing efforts and do the work to get them going,” Lee says.
In his post, Lee also invited members of the wine community to a Zoom brainstorming meeting. A mere four days later, over 70 people attended the meeting.
In preparation for the meeting, Lee organized the suggestions into groups—immediate, medium-term and long-term. He presented the ideas at the meeting and the group selected which ones to pursue in a highly congenial brainstorming session marked with enthusiasm and even occasional humor, especially during a few moments of computer malfunction.
“My own thought is that we need a guerilla marketing effort, faster, leaner and less expensive options, at least in the short term,” Lee said in the meeting, as he introduced the suggestions.
Inspired by pop singer Taylor Swift’s Oct. 3 release of her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, one of the most popular ideas was dubbed “The Life of a Sonoma Girl.”
The group brainstormed a social media campaign including an Instagram account with pictures of Sonoma County women winemakers/harvest workers/vineyard workers doing what they do at harvest.
Kathleen Inman, the owner, winemaker and general manager of Inman Family Wines, volunteered herself and her daughter Ashley, who’s experienced in digital communications, for the campaign, which went into high gear on Instagram and TikTok in September.
Another well-received suggestion involved capitalizing on the popularity of sauvignon blanc, “The one category of wine that has increased price and number of cases sold over the last year,” Lee said.
The campaign will likely present a free sauvignon blanc tasting for a month, in hopes of drawing folks from the Bay Area who would come for the sauvignon blanc and stay to sample other wines.
As with the Taylor Swift idea, the campaign was met with enthusiasm and a number of additional suggestions, including a possible event at the Sonoma County Wine Library.
“We could get this up and running by November,” one attendee said. Work is continuing on the project, with Russian River Valley Winegrowers, Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley and Alexander Valley Winegrowers collaborating.
Lee responded, “If we were going to run Facebook ads, whoever is handling the item could say, ‘Here is the cost of the Facebook ad, it would reach this many people in the area and if we had 30 wineries participating at $100 apiece, we could do this with $30,000 in Facebook advertising.’
“I don’t mind fronting the cost and having people pay me later,” Lee added.
Those two suggestions were for the short term. A third suggestion, more for the medium term, involved using the 40th anniversary of the movie Pretty in Pink coming up Feb. 28, 2026, to promote rosé wines.
Another idea was to establish regular meetings of the region’s marketing organizations—Sonoma County Winegrowers, Sonoma County Vintners, the county Tourism Board—as well as the county’s American Viticultural Areas, designated grape-growing spots with unique geographic and climatic features.
Kruse, who attended the meeting, embraced the idea with enthusiasm: “One hundred percent.”
In an interview, Kruse said she is organizing the first of such meetings to take place in November, when members of the wine community will no longer be busy with the harvest.
Sonoma County’s grape harvest season runs primarily from September through October, though it often begins in late August and can sometimes extend into November. The specific timing depends on the weather and the grape varietal.
Along those lines, “The current status of the Wine Improvement District is that it’s on hold,” says Prema Kerollis, president of Sonoma County Vintners. “It’s on hold at least through harvest or the end of the year.”
She notes, “Basically, the Wine Improvement District has introduced useful and inclusive conversations. Its purpose is to unify and unite the county and though the initial response was so emotional, I think it’s doing that work of challenging our vintners to think creatively about what we need.”
In addition to Lee’s brainstorming session, the winegrowers association sent out a survey in September to help understand the state of the wine community.
“We were looking at doing a survey to capture interest yes or no in the Wine Improvement District,” Kruse said. “Since that has been paused, we adjusted,” with questions including “What ideas do you have to market and support the wine community right now? What ideas do you have for funding?”
Kruse adds, “We’re trying to capture the priorities of growers and wineries, also the community if they want to weigh in.”
While the fortunes of Sonoma County’s wine industry are still shaky, one thing seems certain: When the improvement district is revisited near the year’s end, it will be with a better grounding in the wine community’s wishes.
