Rich Guys Gone Wild

A wealthy couple with high government connections start up a winery in Napa Valley. This is really nothing new. A number of rich folks have done the same.

Craig and Kathryn Hall own the Hall Wine and WALT wine labels. They have pretty much spared no expense on their Napa properties.

What has people upset now is the plan to take out 14,000 hillside mature native oak trees to plant a 200+ acre vineyard in Napa. It will draw its irrigation water from a different, nearby watershed -- something that's usually illegal.

All of this was happily approved by the rubber-stamping Napa County Board of Supervisors.

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Future home of more vineyards in Napa

 
This isn't the only time the locals have had to stand up to winery owners.
In western Sonoma County
In Paso Robles