Voters approve winery in dry Trimble County
The future of a local winery opening in a historically dry county was decided by 79 registered voters in the East Bedford precinct Tuesday.
In a 52-to-27 vote, the Trimble County, Ky., voters chose to allow the Little Kentucky Winery LLC to sell wine on its farm on U.S. 421 in Bedford, Ky.
The voters who came out in the wintry-mix weather for the special election at Morgan Community Center were about 11 percent of the eligible voters. Far fewer voters were in favor of the winery than signed a petition to have the special election at the county's expense.
In November, property owner Teresa Weyler presented a petition with 133 certified signatures to the Trimble County Fiscal Court to open her and her husband's winery. A petition was needed because Trimble and 54 other Kentucky counties are completely dry. The county has been dry since the 1940s.
According to Kentucky law, some wineries are allowed to operate within dry counties. Because the small-farm winery was approved by the voters, it will be able to operate within the precinct and can produce and sell wine on its premises.
Under the state law, the winery can also apply for a license to sell wine and beer by the drink in a restaurant located on the premises. The special election was the first step the winery will have to take to get approved by the state to open its doors.
The winery owners will apply for an in-state small-farm winery license. They will have to submit with their application to the state a copy of the winery's federal basic permit and proof of their annual wine production. The applicants must go through criminal background checks and advertise their intentions to apply for a small-farm winery license.
If the winery owners make it through the first nine steps of the application process, they will take their application to the local Alcoholic Beverage Control administrator. Since Trimble County does not have an administrator, one will have to be established. Typically, the county judge-executive is a county's Alcoholic Beverage Control administrator. The administrator's signature of approval will have to be on the winery's application for the license.
The state office in Frankfort, Ky., will take about 30 to 60 days to process the application. The license fee is $100 for a small-farm winery.
If the state approves the license, the winery will be able to manufacture and bottle its own wines; bottle wines produced by another small-farm winery; serve on the premises or at small-farm winery off-premise retail sites; give free samples of wine produced by the winery; sell by the drink or by the package on the premises, at retail sites, at fairs, festivals and other similar events if all sale sites are in a wet territory; sell and transport wine produced at the winery to wholesale license holders and other small family winery license holders; consume on the premises wine produced by the winery; and ship wine produced by the winery if the wine is purchased by a customer in person at the winery or shipped by a licensed common carrier.
In Kentucky, 11 dry counties have wineries that operate inside their borders. They are Boyle, Henry, Caldwell, Jessamine, Letcher, Madison, Owen, Pulaski, Rowan, Scott and Washington counties. Trimble County neighbors Henry County and Owen County are about an hour from Bedford.