New Calif. tax threatens to cripple struggling vineyards

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California’s Napa Valley is fermenting into a full-blown revolt as furious vineyard owners warn a new fee could leave them paying tens of thousands of dollars a year — the latest financial punch threatening to crush the struggling wine industry.

Farmers across the iconic Northern California enclave say they are staring down financial disaster as the state moves to crucify them for their use of groundwater.

Under a new law coming into effect later this summer, wineries will have to pay just under $99 per acre per year on land they irrigate as part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s sustainable water initiative.

It comes as the region, once famed across the world for its wine, is already in crisis mode over plummeting profits, fewer tourists, changing drinking habits and wildfires wiping out farmland.

Beckstoffer Vineyards, one of Napa Valley’s largest and most respected grape growers, estimates the new fee will cost the company about $25,000 a year for its 12,000 acres in the Napa region.

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