I couldn't resist a post about the city I've called home for the past six years: Tacoma, T-Town as those in the know call it, just got a tad more friendly to small businesses as the City Council has approved an ordinance that allows small-scale microwineries in certain residential areas. More details here.

By approving the ordinance, Tacoma joins a growing list of metro areas that are embracing the national trend toward microwineries. The New York Times nicely ties the trend together here.

Microwineries are the opposite of vineyard-based or factory wineries: They produce small batches of wine using grapes imported from other locations. Tacoma's ordinance, which takes effect Dec. 31, enables microwineries to produce and sell up to 1,000 cases of wine a year in neighborhood retail areas.

This is not only good for the wine business, but it's also good for small businesses looking for niche wine markets. The News Tribune reports that the proposed ordinance came by way of Tacoma winemaker Philip Coates, who's wanted to expand his home-based winemaking business since 2006. With the city's blessing, Coates plans to launch Coates Winery out of a retail location he owns in a zone where microwineries were previously prohibited.

It will be interesting to watch whether more microwineries sprout in Tacoma (or elsewhere in Washington), which is enjoying a nice renaissance, with a UW branch campus thriving, a lively art and museum scene growing and, as it turns out, a newly developed taste for microwineries being put into play.