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Business & Tech

Milagro Tasting in September, and Appeal Filed Over Winery Ordinance

The winery expects to open its tasting room in late September. Meanwhile, San Diego Citizenry Group files an appeal of the tiered winery ordinance.

Milagro Farm Vineyards & Winery is planning to open the next Ramona Valley tasting room in late September, according to winemaker Jim Hart.

. The building is now up and undergoing finishing touches to its interior while the winery goes through the final stages of the bonding and permitting process.

Milagro applied to operate as a small winery under San Diego county’s Tiered Winery Ordinance. The ordinance provides for three regulatory tiers of wineries: wholesale limited, boutique and small. The three tiers allow for varying levels of production, sales and onsite promotion.

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Small winery status allows for a little more flexibility in what you can do in the winery, Hart said recently.

“It allows you some more events, more people at one time. We have a pretty big property here.”

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The 90-acre location started out as a getaway for La Jolla residents Kit and Karen Sickels, who hired Hart part-time in 2006 to make wine for their personal use. Hart, a second-generation winemaker (his father founded Temecula’s Hart Winery), tasted the wine and saw its commercial potential. He encouraged the Sickels’  to get bonded. They did, and Milagro was soon earning medals at competitions all over the west coast, beating wines from growers around the world.

I noted some of the medals Milagro had earned in . Hart is proud to note more honors received in the past two months. Their 2010 Sauvignon Blanc earned silver medals at the Los Angeles International Wine Competition and the Long Beach Grand Cru; it also earned a silver at the San Francisco International Competition.

Hart promised to let me know when the official opening day for their tasting room is scheduled.

Winery Ordinance Under Appeal

San Diego Citizenry Group (SDCG) has filed an appeal against the April 15 San Diego Superior Court ruling which upheld the county’s Tiered Winery Ordinance.

The appeal was filed with the Superior Court of California on June 10 and received by the California Appellate Court on June 22. The citizenry group had until July 5 to file an appeal, according to Carolyn Harris, legal counsel for the Ramona Valley Vineyard Association.

Harris said she learned of the appeal through the office of the County Counsel, which represented the county in the original case, San Diego Citizenry Group vs. County of San Diego.

A check of the California Appellate Court website indicated no further information beyond a notice of appeal. Patch will follow up with the County Counsel’s office and Coast Legal Group, which represents the citizenry group, for further information.

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