The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Legislators explore ways to help wineries weather problems
HARTFORD — A poorly drafted proposal in the General Assembly has highlighted the need for supporting Connecticut’s farm wineries survive potential disasters such as grapevine die-offs.
Upon discovering the weaknesses in his proposal, the conservative state representative who submitted the bill came to an agreement with the Democratic co-chairmen of the General Law Committee that a major rewrite of the legislation is needed after conferring with the state winery industry.
The event occurred during a recent public hearing, in which state Rep. Doug Dubitsky, RChaplin, admitted that his proposal on the percentage of Connecticut-grown grapes produced by farm wineries would do little toward his goal to offer possible lifelines to the state’s two dozen wine producers.
As written, the bill would have allowed farm wineries to not be located on or associated with farms operated by permittees, and would even exempt farm wineries from growing any grapes at all. The proposal drew opposition from the Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association. Under current law, wine must contain at least 25 percent of grapes grown on a farm winery’s property.
“The way it was drafted was not exactly the way I had anticipated,” Dubitsky said in a virtual appearance before the committee. “The way that it is now before you, it essentially eliminates many of the protections that have been drafted into the statutes over the years to protect Connecticut farm wineries from outside the state. The purpose of this bill is to allow a farm winery who has been wiped out by weather or a flood or something like that, but still has equipment, to obtain grapes from other vineyards around the state but within the state in order to manufacture wine when they can’t use their own grapes.”
Dubitsky whose mostly rural district includes wine makers, said that in the hypothetical case of a farmer who grows only merlot grapes wants to use a neighbor’s cabernet grapes, they could have a mix. “We have some ideas of making this a bill that we can all support. As it’s drafted, it’s not that good, actually. I’m not sure I would support it as it’s drafted.”
“Obviously it’s not the intent to gut the farm winery provisions,” said state Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden, cochairman of the committee, noting that farm wineries are required to grow the minimum amounts of their own fruit over a multi-year period. “It’s just our fault. We gutted that and didn’t mean to.”
D’Agostino said that the intention of any eventual legislation would be to still allow farm wineries to obtain as much as 75 percent of their fruit from out of state. “Let’s say in one year you’ve got a blight or there’s a flood or whatever it is and you can’t even meet the minimum threshold,” he asked Dubitsky, adding if the intent were to allow other state-grown grapes to be used by a farmer.
“It probably wouldn’t be for just one year because if an entire vineyard is wiped out by a flood it takes three, four, sometimes five years to get vines in production,” Dubitsky said. “We’re looking at a way that an actual legitimate in-state vineyard could remain in business if it was unable to produce grapes for a given period of time.”
Joan Nichols, executive director of the Connecticut Farm Bureau Association, told the committee that she looks forward to working with lawmakers and wineries to rewrite the proposal.
Jamie Jones, who brought grape-growing and wine making to the sixth-generation Jones Family Farm in Shelton, said in an interview this week that he also opposed the bill as proposed by Dubitsky and currently drafted by the committee. Depending on yearly harvests, his farm produces between 5,000-to-6,000 cases, about 13,000 gallons from 12 acres of grapes that make up about 60 percent of the contents of their bottles, which can go up to 70 percent when state-grown fruits are added.
“Our opinion is he is trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist,” Jones said. “I don’t think there is an issue here. I think he had a constituent who thought they couldn’t buy grapes from another vineyard and use them. This is common practice. We grow our grapes and if we need more grapes that’s the beautiful thing. We try to buy more grapes from Connecticut growers. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a concern. But I really think it’s perhaps mincing words.”