Reference Toolbox – Wineries Sales & Tasting Room

Senate Bill (SB) 841 from 2013 provides comprehensive land use rules for wineries located in exclusive farm use (EFU) or mixed farm-forest zones throughout Oregon. SB 841 clarifies marketing activities versus special events. Marketing activities that are permitted outright and have no limit include:

• Wine club activities
• Winemaker luncheons and dinners
• Winery and vineyard tours
• Meetings or business activities with winery suppliers, distributors, wholesale customers and wine-industry members
• Winery staff activities
• Open house promotions of wine produced in conjunction with the winery
• Similar activities conducted for the primary purpose of promoting wine produced in conjunction with the winery
• Hosting charitable events where no rental fee is charged

SB 841 defines special events as: “Outdoor concerts for which admission is charged, educational, cultural, health or lifestyle events, facility rentals, celebratory gatherings and other events at which the promotion of wine produced in conjunction with the winery is a secondary purpose of the event”. SB 841 allows up to 18 special event days per year, with county oversight for Willamette Valley wineries. There is no county oversight for the 18 special event days outside the Willamette Valley. Willamette Valley counties include Yamhill, Washington, Multnomah, Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Linn, Benton and Lane. In these counties:

• 1-6 event days: 5-year “license” issued by county; conditions on events can be required.
• 7-18 events: 5-year “permit” to ensure events don’t conflict with neighboring agriculture; permit is land use decision with appeal process allowed.

Oregon winery licensees are allowed to conduct certain offsite tastings/events at retail premises and are now able to provide limited advertising for certain tastings/events. In 2014 the OWA worked with OLCC and stakeholders to update its rules to respond to an enforcement action by the California ABC against wineries for retweeting a social media post mentioning a particular retailer. This activity would have presented a similar problem for wineries in Oregon due to strict laws around providing aid to retailers in the form of free advertising. Revised rules took effect Apr. 1, 2016, with impacts in three main areas:

1. Changes (for the better) to how tastings at retail will work;

2. A newly created type of consumer-facing event called a Promotional Event; and

3. Changes to the advertising rules that allow wineries to advertise their participation at tastings held on retail premises as well as advertise their participation in winemaker-dinner activities that fall under the OLCC’s newly created Promotional Events.

Tastings

• The tasting privileges for wineries are less restrictive under these revised rules. A winery may be on a particular retail premises up to 12 times per calendar year for a manufacturer tasting (previously a winery could attend only eight tastings at a given retail premises). And wineries may now advertise their participation in a tasting held at a retail premises (more on this below). At a manufacturer-conducted tasting, the winery (manufacturer) must provide all product to be served at the tasting as well as the staff to serve the product to consumers at the tasting.
• The revised rules clarify what constitutes a “retailer-conducted tasting.” In a retailer-conducted tasting, there may be no assistance from a winery or wholesaler whatsoever and the retailer may conduct an unlimited amount of such tastings. At a retailer-conducted tasting, all product served at the tasting must be provided by the retailer and there must be NO involvement by the manufacturer in any manner whatsoever.

Promotional Events

• The changes to these rules also create a new category of consumer-facing events called ‘Promotional Events.’ These are retailer hosted events for which the retailer may accept certain types of assistance from ‘suppliers’ (which includes manufacturers, wholesalers and their agents).
• These Promotional Events are defined as an event sponsored by a retailer at a retail licensed premises where the retailer is permitted to accept certain assistance from one or more suppliers. Examples include winemaker dinners, food and alcohol pairings, and product releases (this is a narrow exception to the usual financial assistance prohibitions found in Oregon law).
• A winery may be on a particular retail premises up to 12 times per calendar year for a Promotional Event.
• The retailer is responsible for all sale and service of alcohol beverages at the event, ensuring that all servers have valid OR service permits, ensuring that the supplier does not compensate the retailer (or its employees or agents) to participate in the event, and for ensuring that the supplier does not donate or sell at a discount any alcohol beverages used at the Promotional Event.
• At these Promotional Events the winery may provide education to patrons and retail staff about the products served at the event and they may provide staff to serve the alcohol beverages at the event (as long as they have a valid Oregon service permit).
• The winery may advertise its participation in such an event and may mention certain information about the retailer only to the extent detailed below.

Advertising

The changes to these rules have created privileges for supplier and retailer advertising for manufacturer conducted tastings and the newly created Promotional Events. However, please understand that this limited advertising exception applies only to these narrow circumstances; these changes do not give a winery the freedom to advertise any retailer who carries your product.

• A winery may include certain details about a retailer in a winery advertisement made only in conjunction with a manufacturer conducted tasting or with a winery’s participation in a Promotional Event held at a retail premises.
• The advertising may list no more than the retailer’s name and address, the date of the event, and the name of the winery’s product being featured at the event. No laudatory statements may be made about the retailer.
• The winery’s advertisements to this effect can be made/distributed through any media.

Keep in mind that all other laws and rules still apply to these advertisements (i.e. only advertise to an audience that is over the legal drinking age; don’t advertise over consumption; etc.).

A Special Event Winery Permit allows an Oregon winery licensee to sell wine or cider for consumption at a location other than the one(s) listed in its winery license. A Grower Sales Privilege Licensee may obtain a special events license, which allows the GSP to sell wine or cider at retail directly to consumers at a location other than the one(s) listed in its GSP license. An application and requirements can be found on OLCC's website.