Twenty-six years after the Tax Reform Act of 1986 made important changes to the Internal Revenue Code concerning the definition of property that qualifies for expense method depreciation (I.R.C. §179), the Chief Counsel’s Office of IRS has finally recognized that those changes allow vineyards (and, by analogy, orchards and groves) to qualify for I.R.C. §179. The change is certainly welcome, and conforms the IRS position to what some practitioners had thought was the proper approach since the key statutory changes took effect. The key point is that the IRS now agrees that I.R.C. §179 is available when the vineyard is placed in service even in situations where the taxpayer established the vineyard years earlier by planting the seeds and capitalizing expenses during the pre-production period.