Selling fruit port and wine from a Cromwell fruit stall would not open the door for other stalls to sell alcohol, a hearings panel believes.
Suncrest Orchard Ltd has been given land use consent to operate an off-licence at the Jones Family Fruit Stall.
The Central Otago District Council's hearings panel considered the matter earlier this month and decided granting the consent would not set a precedent.
It said the port would be made from fruit which would otherwise be discarded so ''a comparison can be drawn with other products which are permitted to be sold from a retail selling place''.
The wine would be made by the orchard owners from grapes grown on the business partners' vineyard near Bannockburn.
''Given this relationship, the council does not consider that the sale of wine at the Jones Family Fruit Stall will establish a precedent for the sale of wine at other rural selling places or on a stand-alone basis elsewhere in the district.''
Under the district plan, alcohol is excluded from the goods which can be sold in the rural resource area.
The stall has operated on State Highway 6, near the intersection with Pearson and Ripponvale Rds, for more than 30 years, and attracted up to 50 tourists buses a day during summer.
During winter, those numbers dropped to 10-20 buses.
