From Vine to Stand: How SB 917 Expands Farmers’ Market Access for All Winemakers
POSTED BY Nick Conti and Bahaneh Hobel
With wine consumption declining nationwide and California’s winemakers feeling the squeeze, Sacramento has delivered a meaningful win for the state’s wine producers. Senate Bill 917 opens the doors of California’s certified farmers’ markets to winemakers, including many small winemakers who have long been shut out – giving them a new avenue to reach consumers directly.
In January 2026, State Senator John Laird introduced Senate Bill 917 to modernize California’s farmers’ market wine regulations. The California Legislature passed the bill in August 2026, and it was approved by Governor Newsom on August 27, 2026.
Codified at Section 23399.4 of the California Business and Professions Code (the “ABC Act”), the prior law permitted Type 02 winegrower licensees to obtain a Type 79 farmer’s market license to sell at certified farmers’ markets only those wines produced from grapes grown by the winegrower itself. In practice, this requirement closed the door on small, boutique wineries that purchased their grapes from other growers.
SB 917 has updated California’s ABC Type 79 certified farmers’ market wine permit to now allow all wineries, including many small wineries that source grapes from third-party growers, to sell wine and conduct instructional tastings at certified farmers’ markets. For these wine producers, this change means a genuine opportunity to sell directly to the public.
And it doesn’t stop at wine sales! Previously, only one Type 79 permit holder could conduct an instructional or educational consumer tasting a particular certified farmers’ market. Now, with the changes enacted under SB 917, that limit has increased and up to three Type 02/79 licensees are permitted to host instructional tastings during a market’s operating hours, subject to the remaining conditions of Section 23399.4.
Effective January 1, 2027, this new law will expand the sale of wine at certified farmers’ markets to new customers, bringing more booths, more pours, and more conversations between the people who make the wine and those who want to enjoy it.
For further questions regarding SB 917, or other alcohol beverage matters, please reach out to Bahaneh Hobel and DP&F’s Alcohol Beverage Law and Compliance team.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Bahaneh Hobel leads DP&F’s Alcohol Beverage Law and Compliance practice and is a partner in the firm’s Wine Law practice group. She focuses on all aspects of alcohol beverage law and regulation for wineries, breweries, distilled spirits plants, importers, wholesalers and retailers. Bahaneh works extensively with, and represents clients in front of, local, state and federal alcoholic beverage agencies throughout the United States, including the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Alcohol & Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Bahaneh graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia with a degree in Political Science. She then worked for the United States Solicitor General in Washington D.C. before attending the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she served as Projects Editor on the California Law Review. After receiving her law degree, Bahaneh served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard C. Tallman on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and then practiced litigation and transactional law at several established law firms, including O’Melveny & Myers LLP.
Nick Conti earned his J.D. from the Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. He received his Certificate in Dispute Resolution from Pepperdine’s Straus Institute, adopting a solution-oriented, creative approach to conflict resolution in litigation matters. Nick earned his B.A. in Political Science from Villanova University.
Prior to joining DP&F, Nick worked in the field of special education law, representing students with disabilities in advocating for appropriate educational accommodations and services.
