(KTVN) - Local viticulturists are busy setting up vineyards to make wine after a bill passed the Nevada Legislature allowing them to operate in Washoe County.

For Face the State this week I checked in with the president of the Nevada Wine Coalition. They're the political body responsible for lobbying the legislature to get Assembly Bill 4 passed.

Now that it's through, wine enthusiasts are planting vines and experimenting with blends hoping to set up a whole new industry here.

I asked him if that was wise given our drought conditions. “Our climate is very well suited for growing grapes. And if you look at the water usage, grapes use considerably less than the leading agriculture crop in Nevada, which is alfalfa,” says Dennis Eckmeyer.

Eckmeyer went on to say that on top of using less water grape crops are considerably more profitable pulling in more than five times the cash per acre.

But, it's a long timeline. He says it takes between four and six years to get a new vineyard up and running before it's ready to sell wine.

So, for now they'll have to import their grapes from other states which does limit the amount of wine they can produce. Still, he says it should eventually be a big boost to our economy.

“An acre of grapes is going to create roughly 2.5 jobs. Not necessarily the people who are clipping the grapes and crushing them, that's from the harvest all the way down to the people who are your servers pouring the wine on the tables.”