Winery and Vineyard Law
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Winery and Vineyard Law All rights reserved. These materials may not be reproduced without written permission from NBI, Inc. To order additional copies or for general information please contact our Customer Service Department at (800) 930-6182 or online at www.NBI-sems.com. For information on how to become a faculty member for one of our seminars, contact the Planning Department at the address below, by calling (800) 777-8707, or emailing us at [email protected]. This publication is designed to provide general information prepared by professionals in regard to subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. Although prepared by professionals, this publication should not be utilized as a substitute for professional service in specific situations. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a professional should be sought. Copyright 2014 NBI, Inc. PO Box 3067 Eau Claire, WI 54702 67379 IN-HOUSE TRAINING Can training your staff be easy and individualized? It can be with NBI. Your company is unique, and so are your training needs. Let NBI tailor the content of a training program to address the topics and challenges that are relevant to you. With customized in-house training we will work with you to create a program that helps you meet your particular training objectives. For maximum convenience we will bring the training session right where you need it…to your office. Whether you need to train 5 or 500 employees, we’ll help you get everyone up to speed on the topics that impact your organization most! Spend your valuable time and money on the information and skills you really need! Call us today and we will begin putting our training solutions to work for you. 800.930.6182 Jim Lau Laurie Johnston Legal Product Specialists [email protected] [email protected] Winery and Vineyard Law Authors David B. Albo Albo & Oblon, L.L.P. 6367 Rolling Mill Place, Suite 102 Springfield, VA Denise Gorrell Samuels Yoelin Kantor LLP 111 SW 5th Avenue, Suite 3800 Portland, OR Charles E. Harrell Buckley Law P.C. 5300 SW Meadows Road, Suite 200 Lake Oswego, OR Katie Hellebush The Alliance Group 2201 West Main Street Richmond, VA E. Michael Paturis E. Michael Paturis, Attorney at Law 431 N Lee Street Alexandria, VA Philip Carter Strother Strother Law Offices, PLC The Hillyard-Maury House Richmond, VA Lindsey A. Zahn Lehrman Beverage Law, PLLC 2911 Hunter Mill Road, Suite 303 Oakton, VA Presenters DAVID B. ALBO is a partner in the Arlington law firm of Albo & Oblon, L.L.P. As a veteran legislative leader in the Virginia General Assembly, House of Delegates, he has helped write every change to Virginia's ABC ("Alcohol Beverage Control") laws for almost two decades. Mr. Albo authored laws dealing with alternate ways to calculate the food to alcohol ratio for restaurants that serve high end distilled spirits, Sunday sales of alcohol at ABC stores, advertising rules, specialty and banquet license changes, franchise act amendments, and some of the nation's toughest penalties for drunk driving, just to name a few. He is an accomplished litigator in both criminal and civil litigation. Mr. Albo earned his B.A. degree at the University of Virginia and his J.D. degree at the University of Richmond School of Law. KATIE HELLEBUSH is the Vice President of Government Affairs for the Alliance Group. Ms. Hellebush brings experience in successfully advocating on a wide array of legislative and regulatory policy issues at the local, state and federal level in addition to association management of nonprofits. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Virginia Grain Producers Association, and Director of Virginia Wine Council. Prior to joining The Alliance Group, Ms. Hellebush served as the Director of Government Relations for the Virginia Hospitality & Travel Association (VHTA), where she represented the multi-billion dollar tourism industry on a range of legislative and regulatory issues of importance to Virginia businesses and employers. Prior to her position with VHTA, she worked with the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Hellebush enjoys working on a wide variety of policy issues and considers a day successful when she comes up with an innovative way to better serve her clients. She is a 2005 graduate of the University of Richmond where she majored in Political Science and French. E. MICHAEL PATURIS J.D., C.P.A., is the principal of the law office of E. Michael Paturis, Attorney at Law in Alexandria. He also is a Certified Public Accountant in Virginia. Since 1959, Mr. Paturis has focused his practice in the areas of taxation, including: trusts and estates, estate planning, wills, probate, business law, corporate law, partnership law, limited liability company law, business estate planning, business formation, business organization, business planning, business succession planning, business taxation, business torts, business transfers, buy-sell agreements, closely held business law, closely held business taxation, professional practices, closely held corporations, corporate commercial law, nonprofit corporations, professional corporations, S corporations, estate and gift taxation, federal estate and gift taxation, federal income tax, federal tax controversies, tax appeals, tax law, and tax planning. He is a former Tax Specialist in the Chief Counsel's Office of the Internal Revenue Service and a former Senior Trial Attorney in Regional Counsel's Office of the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Paturis is listed in: Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, and Who's Who in America. He is a member of the Alexandria, Fairfax County and Virginia Bar Associations; The District of Columbia Bar; North Carolina State Bar; Virginia State Bar; and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Paturis earned his B.S. degree in Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his J.D. degree, with honors, at the University Of North Carolina School Of Law at Chapel Hill. PHILIP CARTER STROTHER is the founder and managing partner of Strother Law Offices, PLC, with offices in Richmond. He serves as general counsel to many Virginia farm wineries. Mr. Strother has been instrumental in the development of legislation to promote the economic viability of the Virginia Wine Industry, including drafting legislation, testifying before General Assembly committees and serving as a participant of the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry's Virginia Wine Industry Study Group. He also has successfully represented clients before the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on numerous occasions. Mr. Strother has extensive experience with complex litigation, land use and zoning, alcoholic beverage control law, Virginia Wine Industry, and Business Law. Mr. Strother has been published and has lectured in numerous areas of the law. He earned his B.S. degree at Elon University, his J.D. degree, cum laude, at Thomas M. Cooley Law School and his L.L.M. in Environmental Graduate Honor Fellowship for academic excellence Law at The George Washington University Law School. JARROD THOMAS is an attorney with the Strother Law Offices, PLC, in Richmond. His practice areas include Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, Virginia Wine Industry, business law, land use and zoning. Mr. Thomas served a judicial clerkship for the Honorable Cheryl V. Higgins in the Albemarle County Circuit Court. He earned his B.A. degree at the University of Virginia and his J.D. degree at Rutgers University School of Law. LINDSEY A. ZAHN is an alcohol beverage attorney with the Oakton law firm Lehrman Beverage Law, PLLC. She has previously counseled wine, beer, and spirits producers; importers, wholesalers, and distributors on licensing and compliance; federal and state labeling; customs regulations; supplier agreements; and advertising and promotions. Ms. Zahn is an award winning author on wine law, publishes a leading wine law blog called On Reserve, and has traveled to over a dozen wine regions in the U.S. and Europe. She earned her B.S. degree from Cornell University and her J.D. degree from Brooklyn Law School. Ms. Zahn holds a University Diploma in Transnational Wine Trade Law from the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne. Table Of Contents Hot Topics in Local Government Winery Regulations Submitted by David B. Albo 1 2 I. Hot Topics in Local Government Winery Regulations: Conflict with Local Governments & Desire of Small Wineries to By-pass Wholesalers A. Conflict with Local Governments. Local governments want wineries to move in. A winery is inexpensive to take care of. (e.g. a 1,000 town house development requires sewage, police and schools, while a winery costs a local government nothing). However, many local governments don’t want wineries to do anything but grow wine. The problem is that it is very difficult for a winery to make money just on selling their wine. To be able to even scrape by, wineries began engaging in tourism and entertainment to supplement their income. However, some wineries were extreme in their activities with balloon rides, rock shows, and huge events every weekend. Similarly, some local governments have taken the regulation of wineries over the top by trying to regulate the sound of car tires on gravel roads, limiting hours to ridiculous time frames, limiting the number of people allowed to visit, and passing rules that you cannot even play a stereo if any sound goes out of the boundaries of the winery. Wineries countered local government regulations by citing a law known as the “Right To Farm Act” which limits local governments’ ability to regulate farms. Conversely, local governments countered the wineries claims by saying that events such as wine dinners, tastings and weddings were not “farming.” Things came to a head in 2006, when Oasis Winery, according to Fauquier County, went “over the top” with live bands, festivals, and balloon rides.