Many California growers can’t find buyers as the industry produces more wine grapes than the market wants. Wine consumption is declining globally as people drink less.
It’s harvest time in California wine country, but many growers are struggling to sell their grapes as changing drinking habits have caused demand to plunge. The decline is forcing some growers to tear out vineyards that their families have grown for generations.
Wine sales have decreased by more than 20% over a five-year period, causing prices paid for grapes to drop and prompting California growers to take roughly a quarter of the state’s vineyards out of production. Many growers are having to decide whether to harvest at a loss, leave grapes on the vine or replace vineyards with crops more in demand such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives.
Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.
A lot of the regions in California have become stupid expensive, like Napa and Sonoma. Anything decent out of Napa is in the $30-$50 range. The average bottle price is somewhere around $75.
And the entry-level stuff from Europe is better than the entry-level stuff from California. If I had to choose between a $15 Cabernet from California and a $15 Bordeaux, I’m choosing the Bordeaux. You’ll also get a better price/quality ratio out of South America. Chile and Argentina make some good wines.
I really like wine and for the life of me I can’t find a single California wine that is worth the price point when compared to Europe. Not to mention there’s so much overmarketed slop wine that does every dirty trick in the book to make it taste disgustingly sweet or over-oaked. I very rarely have had a bad European wine for $50 and I can say that about half of the California wines in that range were worse than 25$ European counterparts. Maybe some of the $500+ bottles really are great in comparison to some of the Grand Crus out of Burgundy, but I haven’t found anything in a reasonable price range that was worth it. And like you said, other regions in the world punch enormously above their price range that I basically don’t buy anything from the Napa area of California as a matter of course. There are a few less popular regions in Cali that make great wine, but they are still too expensive for what they are.
Look I agree Rombauer Chardonnay and everything like it is over oaked. There’s not a ton of truly sweet wine but plenty of mid to poor red blends.
Sauv Blanc from Lake County (just north of Napa) can be pretty darn good. A lot of Napa houses blend with Lake County grapes because the land is so much cheaper. They also produce some great Zinfandel, the California varietal that has fallen out of popularity.
My favorite is the central coast Pinot Noir. It’s hotter and more peppery than a classic Burgandy but I love that shit.
Then why is everything still $40/bottle? This is some bs “nobody wants to work anymore” logic. I stopped drinking California wine because the prices kept going up but my wages haven’t.
It’s like rent, they can’t drop the price because the price is only ever supposed to go up. They would rather pour it down the drain or sell it to trader joes without a label than sell it for a lower price.
Even the “sell it to Kirkland” California wine is still 20 bucks.
You’re paying for barrels and the extra heavy bottle that make it “feel” high quality.
I like Bota Breeze for lower alcohol and cost efficient, something easy to enjoy with healthy home cooked food! Less or no alcohol is good trend to see for our health.
Canada’s also not buying as much California wine due to Trump’s trade war and general insulting manner.
Well, the usual "free market"bullshit would dictate that the price drops until it finds enough demand again. But thanks to whatever bull shit system we currently have the price stays the same and they just write off everything that doesn’t sell and they throw it away.
We’re in the MBA Free Market now, where prices never go down ever.
And it’s hilarious because they basically destroy their own market completely by doing that. People’s habits will change if you are gouging them, especially in a recession.
Yep. People aren’t going to go back to their old brands when they find new ones. These people literally are incapable of thinking in long-term strategy and it’s destroying their business outlooks.
It’s pretty tough in Australia for wineries too however, you still can find good wine fairly cheap. That’s good because it’s pretty tough for everyone at the moment with inflation being driven by Trump closing the Straight of Hormuz.
And the smell of rot fills the country.
Steinbeck 1939
I used to accidentally buy some California wine every now and then when not paying attention and grabbing a selection, it was never that good.
Since trump 2.0 now i check everything to make sure it’s not American. This isn’t really surprising news
California produces some of the best wines in the world. California also produces some of the worst wines in the world.
Both things can be true. California is a big place.
but Mondavi succeeded in making all wines taste the same.
The best wines are wines that almost no one can afford.
I’ve had quite affordable, very good wines from the Columbia Valley. I have alcohol that’s fit to drink, but I just don’t much, anymore. I give it to guests and neighbors.
Maybe. I’ve had a lot of really good wine from California at reasonable prices, though. Also from WA, OR, and even a few from ID.
Looking through this thread, I get the feeling that most of the people commenting just don’t like wine. And that’s fine. Not everybody has to like everything.
Same! Since about the beginning of the year I always get European wines and Irish whiskey.
I recently bought a Cali red on sale, to cook. It’s not fit for it.
Over-oaked wine is bad for cooking, which is exactly what a lot of bad Cali labels do.
It used to be good like 20 years ago I think
At the very least we can assume it was good around the time that one Orson Welles commercial was made since I’m pretty sure he is getting increasingly pissed in-between takes based off the bloopers. Ahhh the French.
You’d think this would mean wine would get cheaper or something, but actually it means that several thousands of bushels of grapes are going to rot, because capitalism demands profit over common sense
Yeah; I thought a 20% decrease in sales would lead to a decrease in cost.
When demand goes up, the price goes up.
When demand goes down, the price goes up.
Yeah. The thing about the economy is only the supply side is allowed to win.
You paying the offered price is fair market price setting.
You getting a good deal is THEFT from the hard working business owners.
The really fun thing about the capitalist economy is that only the corporate retail side is allowed to win. The growers are going to get the least, the people who put the label on get the most and the stores get whatever they want.
I used to be able to buy 4L of cask wine for like $3AUD back in the 00s. Bring back the good times (and my youth)!
im still not buying any
businesses: shockedPikachuFace.jpg
Wine is a luxury good, it could damage brand perceptions if they significantly markdown prices. They should bottle and sell it under a different label imo but who knows
Mad Dog 20/26
What is this? Civilization? JK
Something tells me that younger generations simply don’t give a shit, it maybe have been a luxury for older generations.
I’ll be honest in high school or college we all would buy the cheapest shit. (millennial). As in the two gallon jugs on the bottom of the shelf. Oh boy the hangovers were intense. And maybe I can’t really tell much of a difference, but I remember I had a seven course paired with wine. All I could think was, yep tastes like wine and sloshed it down and ate the food.
It’s still luxurious, but younger generations don’t give a shit about it. People are drinking less in general and everything’s overpriced. Like why shell out for wine specifically when there’s so much other alcohol choices that are also cheaper now?
Alcohol, to me, feels like a rare treat kind of choice now for anything pricey, instead of a ‘treat yourself it’s the weekend’ choice.
Cheap wine was my gateway to nicer wines down the line. But I rarely drink or have an excuse to open wines, so I’m no longer the target market for all these nice wines.
I agree on that; one of my favorite beers went from ~$20 for a 4 pack to $40. I couldn’t believe it. I tried fancy wines because of just being in certain places but never really got into it. Same with hard liquor, I like a fancy brand but eventually they all started to taste indifferent. It’s like one time I had a $60 glass of some fancy whiskey, I had no idea of the price but work paid for it, and I was like that’s not bad until I saw the bill.
Fuck yeah, bagged wine was a staple of my teens and twenties, that cheap box shit was like party mana, and nothing felt sleezier than sucking on that bag to get every last drop. I do not miss the wine hangover though, good fucking God I’d rather gargle HFA
It was a like rising from the dead the next morning and of course the whole day is wasted.
I saw a lot of really good wine on steep discount recently at Fred Meyer in wa state.
I was very suspicious, bought a bottle, and it was legit.
Maybe people are moving wine at lower price points into markets that don’t normally overlap to move product while minimizing brand damage?
Wine is like $2-5 a bottle in Europe and they also sell more of it there lol
Yeah they could trick the consumer in selling under a decoy name like… wait a minute
That’s fundamentally missing the problem- sales of wine are down 1/5. They have a supply chain that isn’t moving. If you offer cheaper wine you likely won’t move enough more to make up the shortfall and the costs of production/storage ect.
It’s America wine. Famous for the Californian “Two Buck Chuck”. On the other hand, the Europeans I know complain that wine in the US is overpriced and most of the domestic market is too sweet.
I am not in a region known for producing wine, but for some reason there are still a few “vineyards” here and there. I put vineyards in quotes, because these places will have a few vines out front of them, but you get the sense they’re just there for vibes. It’s mostly fruit wine anyway. That shit is fucking vile, and can only be appreciated by boomers who’ve smoked for 50+ years and can’t taste anymore.
It can also be distilled into just ethanol.
Probably has some uses. Fuel. Disinfectant. Making those little toys of a bird that drinks water.
Making those little toys of a bird that drinks water.
It is decided.
Or turn it into a nice balsamico. Better profit margin than ethanol which can be made from way cheaper ingredients.
Balsamic takes 25 years+ to age.
Better get it started then
Should be enough time to fix the international trade relations that Trump is currently “winning”
Good ones, yes. Industrial, not so much. And wine is no instant turnover, either, so they are used to wait at least a few years.
Exactly!
All alcohol saw a large rise in costs. Beer has gotten ridiculous. As far as I am concerned, they did this to themselves.
or replace vineyards with crops more in demand such as almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives.
Why the Hell would you rip out your vine that takes years to become productive and replace it with a tree that also takes years to become productive, just to respond to barely half a decade worth of trend?
Tariffs have reduced exports, particularly to Canada, which was the largest foreign buyer of American wine.
Uh sure, it was the tariffs, and not the widespread Canadian boycott of American alcohol.
Wasn’t the boycott because of the tariffs?
That was one factor. It is more about the general hostility and aggression the US has shown toward Canada.
But you guys started it! What? You guys didn’t do anything wrong? What? Your nation is a stalwart ally, possibly holding the other half of our bff necklace? Well what about that war a long time ago? What? We tried to invade you and you even supported our stupid wars later on?
Well shit, I’ve got nothing.
Also because the US Government is trying to destroy our country by any means. They still threaten to annex Canada, call our Prime Minister “Governor”, claim Canada isn’t a real country, interfere with our politics and elections, support Alberta and Quebec separatists, and do their best to crush our economy. Then they whine that we’re being mean to them. It doesn’t make us very inclined to send our money to the USA, especially when we can just buy Canadian wine instead.
You’re not special, they’re also trying to destroy the US by any means
(/j obviously, but they are trying to smash and grab literally anything not nailed down)
The US is doing a far better job of destroying itself than any of its enemies could dream of. The US used to be the one smashing and grabbing everything in the world. Now they’ve somehow decided they’re getting ripped off by doing that. It’s pure delusion.
Canada just wants to move on. We don’t care about the US at all. Trump is acting like the ex who dumped us and then gets mad seeing us dating other people.
Ok, but the US has been doing that since the 1950s.
I’m getting downvoted by children who don’t know how Deifenbaker shut down Canadian military aviation because he was told to by Eisenhower, and then how Mulroney sold off all public assets cheap.
Perhaps, but in their wisdom Trump and his people draw attention to it daily, and they’ve successfully angered Canadians and undermined their own markets by doing so.
The boycott was because of a threat to annex Canada, repeatedly by the US Ambassador Hoeskra, who is an even bigger asshole than Trump, if that were even possible.
No. It’s because of the annexation threats.
It was because of the bullying
I picked up a bag of grapes in the store on the weekend. Product of the USA, nope. We avoid USA products as much as possible. Sorry to the good Americans.
Nah, you’re fine. Most American farmers voted for Trump anyway.
And how many American farmers do u know? Not a one around me would dare vote against their own interests LOL.
I know a few, they don’t even belive in climate change. (More specifically, that we’re responsible and can do something about it.)
To be fair, I only know about 3, but statistically speaking, rural areas in America tend to lean heavilly Republican.
No need to apologize. The whole American farming industry needs a redo anyway.
Yeah but you (and the farmers) aren’t going to like the redo.
Massive agri-corps have been busily buying up agricultural land as the Tangerine Tyrant’s policies send farmers bankrupt. Gates and Ellison are two of those behind it.
Yeah it seems like something serious is happening, and I only learned about his behind the scenes actions in the last few years. I don’t trust Gates one bit with anti-trust lawsuits becoming part of the cost of business.
Granted this is encouraging me and my family to get back into gardening/farming and things like having chickens.
Agribusiness can get fucked. And farmers too. We need to decentralize ag like, yesterday
wine grapes are different varieties than eating grapes. Just like cider apples.
But USA does not need Canada! It’s just money! US doesn’t care about money!
Warms your heart to see
Well, I think it was our tariffs that contributed to the Canadian tariffs and also contributed to anti-US sentiment, so it’s sort of truthy. heh
Trump implemented tarrifs the last time he was President as well, the difference being that he wasn’t (at least openly) doing it to try to annex our country. This time it is very much that, to the point that accepting the last trade deal would have made us a de facto protectorate of the United States.
But in 2016 the tariffs were gone by 2017 because of the damage to the US economy. The difference in 2026 is Trump DGAF about the US economy.
Grapes are almost $9 a pound. These motherfuckers are out of their mind. A bag of grapes is $15 fucking dollars
Table grapes and wine grapes are not the same thing.
They are the same in the fact that both have been priced to unafordbility.
Shouldn’t have voted for an orange clown then. Oh well.
I am not sure the two things are very related in this case. This mostly has to do with Gen Y and A drinking drastically less and boomers and GenX not making up the difference. If anything tariffs on European wine might be helping these wineries.
If only there was a way to make wine more appealing to a cash strapped consumer. What do you do with a product that won’t sell at its current prices? Hmmmm… this is hard.
Not sure how much it helps, cause now we also avoid American wine in Europe. Probably even more so in Canada.
Yeah my own wine phase lasted about 2 or 3 months of occasional drinking. Each bottle was hit or miss and I wasn’t interested in a new hobby/obsession to keep track of which ones were good. Plus I didn’t like how opening the bottle meant I had to drink it all or waste it within a certain amount of time (whereas beer comes in single drink packages unless you get a keg and spirits don’t really go bad). And the amount of sugar needed to make a wine taste good was enough that occasionally I’d get a headache before a buzz.
Wine isn’t a good option for someone who likes an occasional drink alone (and doesn’t really mean occasionally binge drinks alone).
You are the perfect use-case for a Coravin. Can’t recommend them enough for people who only like to drink a little but still like nice wines. Buy fewer bottles of wine by making them last longer.
Yeah, that looks like it addresses the longevity issue, at least.
French wine is also in decline.
I bet it helps a lot alienation an entire market to the north.
Maybe grow some food that isn’t for cows?
Cows be getting blathered on chardonnay
