(PD) - A crowd of more than 200 people representing both the wine and cannabis industries turned out Thursday at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds to listen to a discussion on possible business collaborations between the two, once marijuana is legalized for recreational use in California.

The message was clear during a forum at the WIN Expo conference that while there needs to be rules written at both the state and federal level, businesses in both sectors already are thinking about the opportunities.

Local wineries publicly have kept their distance from the cannabis industry, especially as no vintner wants to risk his federal permit to sell wine by offering for sale or consumption a drug that is still illegal under federal law.

“A big one is the on-premise use and figuring out a way to do these events; to be able have consumers in that bar environment and tasting room environment where they can try new things with experts and be educated and learn how to pair with food,” Stamey-White said.

That’s the pitch that Philip Wolf is making. Wolf is chief executive officer of Cultivating Spirits, a Breckenridge, Colorado business. It has offered visitors a food, wine and cannabis tasting tour for $249 per person since the Rocky Mountain state legalized recreational use in 2014.