The three Napa Valley vintners who challenged a law that prevented them from pouring wine at charitable events or donating wine to charities were honored last week by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who authored a bill that changed the law.

The trio — Eagle Eye Wines, Elkhorn Peak Cellars and StoneFly Vineyards — were cited at a fundraiser in Tiburon in May 2006 and were told that they could either have their licenses suspended or pay a fine. They opted instead to appeal and after a lengthy hearing before an administrative law judge, their licenses were suspended for 10 days, with five days of the suspension stayed, provided that no violations or disciplinary actions occur within the next year.

But the incident started a firestorm of protest, especially from nonprofit organizations that depend on donations from wineries to raise funds through auctions.

Evans stepped into the fray, bolstered by the support of major wine and agricultural organizations, and guided AB 323 through the Sacramento maze. She obtained unanimous approval in both houses of the legislature and got Gov. Schwarzenegger to sign the bill as emergency legislation in July so it could take effect immediately.

Last Thursday at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone she presented each of the vintners — Bill Wolf of Eagle Eye, Ken Nerlove of Elkhorn Peak and Claudia Sansone of StoneFly Vineyards — with framed copies of the resolution including original signatures of the governor and legislative leaders.   

She also presented a resolution honoring the CIA for establishing the California Vintners Hall of Fame to CIA managing director Charles Henning, who displayed the first Hall of Fame plaque with a bronze bust of Robert Mondavi, selected for its first Pioneer. Plaques for the other first-year inductees — founders Andre Tchelistcheff, Brother Timothy, Agoston Haraszthy, Charles Krug, Georges de Latour and Gustave Niebaum, and icons Maynard Amerine and Harold Olmo — will be mounted on large barrels by the next induction ceremony in March. They will on display in the CIA’s historic barrel room.

As she introduced the three vintners, she said, “This is closure, and in many ways, a new beginning.” Commenting on the suspensions, she said, “I didn’t realize it was a crime. We thought it (changing the law) would be easy, and some folks thought (everyone) would get aboard immediately.”

She said that when the drive to change the law was narrowed to include only pouring at nonprofit groups, “we got the support, and we got the governor to sign it on an emergency basis.” She added, “We made lemonade out of lemons.”

The law change was vital to nonprofit organizations, not just in Napa Valley but throughout the state.

Linda Schulz, who represented the Napa Valley Coalition of Nonprofit Agencies, spoke for all of them when she said, “We couldn’t do our job if we didn’t have the support of our wineries.”

Also present at the ceremony were representatives of Napa Valley Vintners and the Napa County Farm Bureau, who were among the supporters of the change.

Nerlove of Elkhorn Peak said, “We were cited for something that was a bad situation, and we had to make it right. I’m a basic guy — right and wrong, and this was just wrong. I’ve done this (participated with nonprofits) for 15 years but I stopped doing events when this happened.” He since has resumed his support.

“This shows that the little guy can stand up and make a difference,” he added.

Eagle Eye’s Wolf called the law change a “win-win situation for all of us.” The nonprofits benefit, he said, “and we have the opportunity to market our wine.”

Sansone expressed satisfaction at the law change, saying, “This gives us a sense of freedom to support what we want to support.”

Wolf, Nerlove and Sansone are members of a group called Boutique Wine Producers of Napa Valley, and they, along with others in the group participated in the Tiburon event. None of the vintners who were “busted” there were aware of the law that forbade donations, Wolf said.

Asked if the ordeal brought the three vintners closer together, Sansone responded, “Absolutely. This group helps each other, and we share ideas and problems and figure out how we can help each other.”

In this case, they helped hundreds of other vintners, too.