Alcoholic beverage licenses.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, which is administered by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, regulates the application, issuance, and suspension of alcoholic beverage licenses. Existing law authorizes a licensed winegrower to conduct specified activities, including the production of spirits of wine, provided those spirits of wine are blended into wine produced by the winegrower, sold to an industrial alcohol dealer, or destroyed by the winegrower. This bill would expand the authorization of a licensed winegrower to include selling spirits of wine it produces to a distilled spirits manufacturer. Existing law limits the amount of on- and off-sale general licenses that may be issued per county and establishes procedural requirements concerning the issuance and transfer of those licenses, including a requirement that the department hold a drawing to determine the priority for consideration when there are more applicants for licensure than available licenses, as provided. This bill would require the department to make the drawing available for viewing via a live video feed. Existing law authorizes a person that has a brewpub-restaurant license to exchange that license for a bona fide public eating place license subject to the approval of the department, the payment of specified fees, and compliance with other relevant provisions of the act relating to the issuance of an original license. Existing law specifies that this provision applies only to a person that has held a brewpub-restaurant license since on or before December 31, 2019. This bill instead would apply that provision to a brewpub-restaurant license that was first issued on or before December 31, 2019, regardless of transfers subsequent to the original issuance of the license. This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 23358 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 76 to be operative only if this bill and SB 76 are enacted and this bill is enacted last. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.