Restaurant bill boost for Oregon wineries

Oregon’s larger wineries would be granted the right to run their own restaurants under a recent bill, approved on Friday in the state’s House of Representatives.

The bill would allow wineries that produce more than 150,000 US gallons of wine a year the right to run restaurants.

As different counties within the state have differing laws and regulations on what can be done on land used for farming, wineries such as King Estate in Eugene county have previously come up against opposition to their restaurants.

Eugene county representative Paul Holvey said before the vote: "If this doesn’t pass, we’re going to see counties shutting down activities of wineries.”

However, it is debateable how widely this new legislation can be implemented. The Wines of Oregon website says that the average winery in the state (of which there are only 419 according to the last head count) produces around 5,000 cases. This amounts to little more than 16,000 US gallons.

Other representatives complained that the bill left these smaller wineries at a disadvantage. Representative Jim Weidner said: “Essentially we are picking the winners and losers in this bill.”

However, the bill was passed 52-3 in no small part due to the hope that it will provide private sector jobs, according to OregonLive.com. The bill now passes through to the Senate.

Rupert Millar, 03.05.2011