The Nashoba Valley Winery is known around Bolton as a model enterprise, the kind of business other towns envy. The 52-acre farm, with its vineyards, apple and peach orchards, wine shop, and restaurant, attracts visitors from all over New England, and owner Rich Pelletier makes significant donations to charitable causes.

So when the state’s alcohol regulators warned Pelletier in March that he wouldn’t be able to obtain all of the licenses he needs to run his business next year, the news was met with disappointment and alarm, not only by Pelletier, but by the organizations he has helped.

“We, too, will be very impacted by this,’’ said Margaret Koch, executive director of the Virginia Thurston Healing Garden, a cancer support center that holds fund-raisers at the winery.

Pelletier donates the space, food, wine, and staff for the events, and Koch and her team raised $30,000 at the last fund-raiser, giving a boost to the organization’s $350,000 annual budget.

“It was a beautiful, spectacular event,’’ Koch said. “They pull out all the stops.’’

In a similar arrangement with the Bolton Conservation Trust, the trust was able to raise $80,000 at its last fund-raiser at the winery. The proceeds will support the new town common, for which the trust is raising nearly $1.5 million in private donations.

Pelletier arrived in Bolton in 1995, when he and his wife, Cindy, helped save an existing winery from being developed for housing.

“What he purchased and what it is now are worlds apart,’’ said Dan Gaffney, president of the Bolton Conservation Trust. “Every town would love to have this type of business.’’

Pelletier has converted a farmhouse into the restaurant, expanded winery production from 4,000 to 12,000 cases a year, and added a brewery. He employs approximately 50 people, which rises to 100 during harvest season, and estimates he has put at least $3 million into the property.

“For a guy from Fitchburg, it’s significant change,’’ Pelletier said.

The restaurant only serves wine and beer produced on-site and supplies many of the raw ingredients required.

He has leased 4 acres across the street from the farm, in which he has established an antique apple orchard. He would like to plant in another 12 acres, but the uncertainty around the licenses has put those plans on hold, he said.

State officials, including Governor Charlie Baker, have voiced support for Pelletier and appear intent on fixing the license problem, but the bitter taste of the ordeal lingers.

Pelletier estimates he will have spent $20,000 to bring a lawsuit against the state’s Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, and the uncertainty around his ability to serve alcoholic beverages in 2017 has affected his bookings for next year, he said.

State regulators, Pelletier said, reinterpreted the laws governing the licenses allowing him to manufacture and pour wine and beer at the farm. In March, they alerted him that in 2017, he would be granted licenses to manufacture wine, beer, and spirits, or pour them, but not both. It would be up to him to choose which type of license he would be granted, but it could not be all of them.

He wonders what he did to attract the state’s attention.

“What all of the sudden, after so long, made them wake up and decide this is where taxpayer money should be spent?’’ Pelletier said.

His supporters agree.

“It’s just the bizarrest situation you can think of,’’ Gaffney said. “Sixteen years of approving these licenses, and one day they just decide not to.’’

In a history of the issue on the farm’s Facebook page, Pelletier wrote that he was aware of a problem in 2011 and sought a legislative solution then, but was denied one.

Citing ongoing litigation, the state treasurer’s office, which oversees alcohol licensing, declined to comment on how the problem began.

The circumstances at the winery did not change, Pelletier said, only the state’s interpretation of the law.

Pelletier’s attorney suspects the state’s new electronic system precipitated the change, not something more sinister. “I believe ABCC generally does a great job administering licenses,’’ said John P. Connell. “I don’t believe anybody was out to get Nashoba.’’

Pelletier’s suit was first reported by WBUR.

His cause is supported by others in Bolton, and a social media campaign helped attract the attention of state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who oversees alcohol regulation and proposed legislation to aid the winery. She has since proposed an overhaul of the Commonwealth’s liquor laws.

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office had asked the court to dismiss Pelletier’s lawsuit on the grounds that because the 2017 licenses hadn’t been officially denied yet, Pelletier hadn’t suffered any harm.

Healey’s office has since withdrawn that motion and it has written a letter to Pelletier’s attorney stating it believes existing law allows the farm to produce and pour alcoholic beverages, as it had been doing.

Connell is pursuing the lawsuit until there is some legal resolution. The state House of Representatives has passed legislation addressing Pelletier’s issue, though a legislative remedy will probably not be in place by the time of Connell’s next court appearance July 27, he said.

Jill Terreri Ramos can be reached at jill.ramos@globe. com.