For 30 years now, Sunstone Winery has provided the Santa Ynez Valley one of its more famously photographed touchstones, shifting from “Tuscan-inspired” villa in wedding albums to “futuristic French chateau,” at least for purposes of one recent Star Trek show.
This week, the new owners of Sunstone took it to the next level of improbability, announcing they’d secured the necessary planning permits to cultivate cannabis where for 30 years organic wine grapes have been grown. This marks the first-time cannabis and viniculture — often presented as intractable foes — will coexist in peaceful commercial cultivation at the same time and the same place in Santa Barbara County.
Perhaps more remarkable, Sunstone’s new owners managed to negotiate an understanding with seven neighbors — several of whom are big names in the wine industry — and effectively defanged what could easily have escalated into another drawn-out appeals battle waged in front of the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.