If you are in the business of making, importing or selling wine in California then you, or your business hold a license with the California Alcoholic Beverage control department. (or CA ABC) There is a handy resource available on the CA ABC’s website that I access frequently on behalf of clients and for other research purposes. This is their  “License Query System” database. 

This database can be used by anyone to lookup the license information for any CA ABC license holders. This information can be searched by ownership info (the name actually listed on a CA ABC license) as well as by physical address. 

If your wine business has been around awhile and along the way goes through some changes related to its ownership, such as changing from a sole proprietorship to an LLC, or changes to the members listed on an LLC, or changes to the officers or the above 10% stockholders on a corporation then you are required to file an application update to your local ABC office. 

This above example is a very common one that I see in my business. This scenario is where this ABC license database comes in handy. Perhaps you aren’t sure exactly what your most recent ownership details are that are on file with the CA ABC. This license query lookup will provide you with those details.

Here’s my video which shows how to access and use it to look them up.