Growing Wine in Northern California - A Sustainable Natural Resource or the Next Boom to Bust?

"Growing Wine in Northern California" - Spot.Us TV Promo from KRCB North Bay Public Media on Vimeo.

With about 60,000 acres planted in grapes, less than 10% of its agricultural land, Sonoma County has surpassed Napa County in wine grape production. Sonoma County’s wine grape crop was worth $390 million in 2010, while the area’s wine culture is a big factor in Sonoma County’s billion dollar annual tourist trade.

Whether we know it or not; our county and Northern California’s welfare is balanced on the rim of a wine glass.

This project will examine this contentious issue and industry from the ground up, on both sides of the line, in a series of eight reports and oral histories.

"Growing Wine in Northern California" will harvest verifiable data and separate it from the critics’ vitriol and insiders’ self-interest. Is there a monoculture myth in Sonoma County or are we sacrificing the health of our diminishing rural areas to the huge profits of viticulture? 

Wine Pour clip courtesy of RentVine.com (Creative Commons By Attribution License.)