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Wine storing facilities, serving hundreds of clients, can not only help with insurance costs, but are attractive to distributors.
servicing your residential plumbing needs for 40 years in the North Bay. Thank you for your business! —Art Dexter
insurance is the base location for the winery and its own storage facilities. It matters whether a natural disaster recently occurred nearby. Jacob Ganzler, owner of Petaluma Insurance Agency in Petaluma, has a customer base that includes boutique grape growers and online wine retailers. He says events like the 2020 Glass Fire in Napa can strain the resources of insurers and reinsurers. This drives up prices across the board. “Reinsurance, essentially insurance for insurance companies, plays a key role in determining the cost and availability of policies. The reinsurance market has been under strain in recent years due to rising disaster-related losses and a global tightening of available reinsurance capacity,” says Ganzler. The distinction between admitted and non-admitted insurers is another factor that can affect premiums. An admitted insurer is required to file its rates and specific requirements with the state. It largely cannot change its rates without authorization from the state. A non-admitted insurer is not required to
file rate approvals with the state. “Non-admitted companies like Lloyd’s of London are subject to fewer regulatory restrictions. They can raise premiums more freely to reflect the market reality of the risks they’re covering. However, non-admitted insurance is typically more difficult to place. It typically requires more steps, and is often more expensive,” says Ganzler. So far, Ganzler has seen only one client in the wine industry who has gone out of business. The action was due in part to rising insurance premiums and broader market conditions. “That said, the higher costs for insurance are putting pressure on many businesses in the wine industry, especially operations that are more sensitive to increases in overhead,” says Ganzler. Actions to help wineries Wine storage facilities have the potential to alleviate some of the pressure. These warehouses tend to serve hundreds of clients, with each
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707-575-1500 leducanddexterplumbing.com
September 2025
NorthBaybiz 43
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