Here in California if you are in business as a winery, which is known as a “Winegrower” with our Alcoholic Beverage Control agency by now you would have more than likely received a mailing with your type 02 license renewals. The CA ABC gives numbers to all the different types of licenses they issue, and for those in the winery game they hold the type 02, or winegrower license.

First of all, I’ve always gotten a kick out of that term, “winegrower”. I always thought wine was made, and grapes were grown. However the license name was derived by the CA ABC folks once upon a time they are still rather old school with their renewal process. All type 02 licenses, which is called the Winegrower come up for renewal by June 30th of each year. These renewals are sent out, and must be returned via snail mail to the CA ABC headquarters in Sacramento. 

So a head’s up to all you California wineries- if you don’t receive this renewal mailing from the CA ABC by the end of May- give their Sacramento office a call 916-263-6882. You’ll want to provide them with your ABC license # as well. In case you can’t easily track down what that number is- here’s a link to look it up on their handy license query lookup

The CA ABC states that it isn’t their fault if for some reason their renewal mailings don’t make it successfully to your mailbox, and if they don’t receive your renewal mailing back post marked by June 30th they will tack on a ranging rate of late fee, which depends on what your license fee is. I also suggest sending your renewal back to their office in some form that you can track confirmation that they received it.

One other point worth mentioning here is that if your wine business is the “alternating proprietor” type you will hold a second type 02 license, called a duplicate. This will list whatever your businesses address is, which is different from your other type 02 license that lists the winery’s physical address. This second, or “duplicate” 02 license is also up for renewal by June 30th of every year- so make sure that you receive that renewal mailing from the CA ABC office as well. Here is where to contact them again if you don’t receive it by the end of May.  (916) 263-6882.