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Maryam Ahmed is a Napa-based entrepreneur and CEO of Maryam + Company, a certified B Corporation that translates vision into strategy and experience, often through food, wine, and place. Below, she makes the case for why local hospitality businesses should champion their regional wine.<\/em><\/p>\n During a scouting trip to a wine region for my immersive travel program, Field Blends, I walked into a hotel bordering wine country, and was presented with wines from 2,000 miles away. Months earlier, in another region, I was taken to the \u201cfanciest restaurant in town.\u201d They didn\u2019t have wines from producers just 15 miles down the road.<\/p>\n I asked my followers on social media, \u201cHotels and restaurants in a wine region: why aren\u2019t you pouring local wine?!\u201d<\/p>\n Wine producers, tourism boards, and hospitality operators all share responsibility for a region\u2019s story and ultimately its success. And yet there\u2019s a disconnect in the U.S. I can\u2019t ignore: visit an emerging wine region or its prominent neighboring cities, and you\u2019ll find that many of the local restaurants and hotels don\u2019t actually serve local wine.<\/p>\n If these businesses are supposed to represent the best of their home turf, why aren\u2019t they?<\/p>\n One answer sits in the structure of the wine industry itself. Large distributors dominate the market, and they\u2019re built for scale, not specificity. They offer one-stop ordering, reliable inventory, and wines with built-in name recognition or special pricing\u2013tools that make a buyer\u2019s job easier and less risky but ultimately remove a sense of place from a local establishment.<\/p>\n Smaller local producers often operate in spite of that infrastructure, but they aren\u2019t exempt from the work of participating in it. Limited production, self-distribution, and low visibility can all play a role, and without intentional effort to build demand and relationships, their wines can remain just as absent from local lists. And so a loop is created: Revenue wins out over region. Convenience wins out over community.<\/p>\n The beverage industry is a massive, layered system, but it moves in response to demand. That puts real power in the hands of the drinker.<\/p>\n What you order, where you spend, and what you ask for all shape what shows up on a list. Consumers (wine pros and wine lovers, alike!) may choose based on convenience or familiarity, not curiosity or place. But when those patterns become the norm, they reinforce a structure that leaves local winemakers\u2013especially small, independent, or BIPOC businesses on the sidelines in their own backyard.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a structural failure. When restaurants and hotels bypass local wine, money leaves the community. It skips the vineyard crew, the cellar team, the small business owner trying to pay fair wages. It bypasses the local tax base and weakens the regional economy. It prevents the region from building resilience against climate disasters, and it makes it harder for producers to invest in their land or hire seasonal workers.<\/p>\n In a time when federal support feels increasingly unreliable and states are being left to fend for themselves, reinvesting in local businesses isn\u2019t a noble act, it\u2019s a shared responsibility. Without that reinvestment, the places we love to visit risk losing the very character that draws people in.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not suggesting that every wine list needs to be exclusively local. Diversity has value, and thoughtful curation is part of good hospitality. But when you\u2019re dining in a wine-producing area and there\u2019s not a single local wine available by the glass, that\u2019s a choice worth questioning.<\/p>\n And when it comes to the traveler seeking the local flavor, intentionality matters. Where are you choosing to dine or stay? Smaller, independent businesses often have more flexibility to source locally, and your dollars are more likely to circulate through an entire regional supply chain instead of reinforcing national ones. What are you expecting from the places you visit? Mission statements are as easy to find as menus now. If a business claims a commitment to local farms and producers, that value should carry through to the glass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n