California wineries reel after closing tasting rooms due to coronavirus
by Daniel Miller and Patricia Escarcega, Los Angeles Times
Mar 18, 2020
4 minutes
LOS ANGELES - For the last six years, Jamie Slone and his wife Kym have run a boutique Santa Barbara winery that sells about 1,200 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and other varieties each year.
The operation, called Jamie Slone Wines, relies heavily on its downtown Santa Barbara tasting room, which accounts for 95% of the business' annual revenue. But on Monday, a day after Gov. Gavin Newsom advised bars and wineries to shutter amid the coronavirus outbreak, a rattled Slone closed his tasting room.
"It doesn't take long to do the math to see how this can be devastating," he said.
Amid the widening pandemic, Newsom' directive, which was announced
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