From Wine to Cannabis: How Prop. 64 Will Change CA’s Wine Country

With the passing of Proposition 64 in California, there will undoubtedly be an increase in the demand for high-quality cannabis. There will also be the potential for cannabis tourism destinations and new, inventive ways to generate profit off this booming industry. Now it appears that cannabis cultivators in Sonoma County and Napa Valley may start looking toward the profitability of this cash crop in comparison to growing wine grapes.

Cannabis cultivation has the potential to be very profitable, and it doesn’t require as much space as grape vineyards for growing wine. Terry Garrett, a member for the Sonoma County Economic Development Board, shared with Forbes the current state of cannabis within Sonoma County. “Seven out of 10 people who live here have never seen cannabis growing, yet it’s six times the production value of our local wine grapes,” Garrett said.

Sonoma County has plenty of land, and Garrett estimated that it would only take 500 of the county’s 586,000 acres of agricultural land to generate $3.5 billion. Now, compare that to the $500 million that Sonoma’s 60,000 acres of wine grapes are worth, and ahead lies a huge opportunity.

Additionally, Sonoma County wine grapes were reported in 2015 crop reports as yielding $8,500 per acre. Cannabis on the other hand would yield an estimated $8,200,000 in total acerage if it was grown in the same areas that wine is currently grown. This huge opportunity is expected to affect tourism in the area, but wine country hopes to limit its cannabis cultivation to brands that are high-quality brands and yield from Sonoma County.

Phil Corturri is a farmer and was someone who started the trend for organic and biodynamic farming practices in the state of California. Coturri shared with Forbes that not everyone in Sonoma County is now going to grow cannabis since Prop. 64 passed. “People who have been growing pot are still gonna grow pot,” Coturri said. People who have been growing grapes are still gonna be growing grapes. At least now we can do it under the somewhat veil of respectability.”