Holly’s Hill Vineyards In Pleasant Valley May Add Brewery To Tasting Room
By Jake Abbott – Staff Writer, Sacramento Business Journal
(PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA) July 2, 2022 — A family-run winery outside Placerville that specializes in Rhone-style wines is in the process of expanding its operations to include an on-site brewery.
Holly’s Hill Vineyards operates a winery on 40 acres in El Dorado County’s Pleasant Valley. The vineyards are planted exclusively with varieties originally from the Rhone Valley in Southern France.
Josh Bendick, who operates the business with wife Carrie and in-laws Tom and Holly Cooper, said the winery produces about 15 different bottlings, including varieties such as viognier, roussanne, grenache, mourvedre, syrah and counoise, as well as a dry rosé, red and white blends, and a dry-hopped white wine.
About 80% of the grapes used in the process are grown on-site, with the rest coming from other vineyards in El Dorado County. The winery also operates a tasting room on-site where it sells its wines daily.
The business recently teased the addition of a brewery at its site at 3680 Leisure Lane.
Bendick said the business had been toying with the idea of brewing beer for several years but became more serious in the past few years when the state passed a law that allows winemaking and brewing to occur at the same facility. Another reason for the planned expansion of operations is to attract a wider audience, particularly younger customers, he said.
Holly’s Hill Vineyards applied for a conditional use permit from the county about six months ago to expand its operations to include brewing. Bendick said they are still awaiting approval from the county, as well as the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for a small beer manufacturer license.
While they haven’t been given the official go-ahead yet, Bendick said he’s confident those approvals will be coming in the months ahead.
“Our initial thought was to basically have beer on tap here at the tasting room, but part of the conditional use permit will require a certain amount of the product be sold off-site, so that’s another thing we are trying to figure out right now,” Bendick said. “We are looking to do a two-barrel system, which produces about 60 gallons of beer.”
Bendick said that initially, he’d like to produce three different styles of beer including a pale ale and a wheat beer, though nothing has been finalized.
How they incorporate the beer into the winery’s 500-square-foot tasting room will also depend on the fate of Assembly Bill 1734, which passed the state Assembly in May and is currently before the state Senate. The bill would allow winegrowers that operate tasting rooms to also sell beer on-site. […]