In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 67 into law, which set the stage for the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Cannabis Appellations Program.
It’s a whirlwind of change for an industry that, until just a few years ago, was mostly illegal in the United States.
Ask any grower in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle, composed of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties and other mostly rural cannabis-producing areas in its vicinity, and they’ll claim that their cannabis is special.
Until recently, it’s been mostly cannabis enthusiasts dealing in hearsay as to what factors make the best product.
It’s next to impossible to discuss cannabis appellations without Coleman’s name popping up.
The group had been hostile to cannabis cultivation within Napa Valley.
Richard Mendelson, a key architect of the AVA system, agrees.
“It is true that I spent a large part of my career working on the American wine appellation system, particularly in Napa, but elsewhere, as well, establishing AVAs for various petitioners,” says Mendelson.
“From the get-go, we identified appellations as something that would be relevant for cannabis as a specialty product,” he says.
“Absolutely,” says Coleman.
Cannabis can be grown outdoors, indoors or a mixture of both.
“A lot of different factors went into defining what an appellation is,” says Mike Benziger, a legendary Sonoma county vintner and, in recent years, cannabis cultivator.
So we can move quickly in identifying different attributes we want in a plant that reflects the location it was grown in.” Tweaks can be made easily from year-to-year, he says.
The various grower councils and organizations in Northern California, which lead the appellations charge, envision cannabis being bought and sold internationally one day.
Already, smaller growers in the Emerald Triangle and the surrounding areas are losing a foothold in the market.
It would honor their history, heritage and the places they come from while placing a distinct value marker on the sun-grown cannabis that is produced there.
While petitions were supposed to begin to be collected as of January 1, the pandemic slowed everything down.
“The naming of the appellation will be tied to the specific boundaries of the appellation, so somehow tied into the history and identity of the region, such as Salmon Creek, following a watershed that is a part of the boundary, for example.
“We are freely sharing perspectives and information now, we talk a lot,” says Stults.