Posted on 09/23/2026 9:28:49 AM PDT by DFG
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.
“It’s just sickening,” said Berryhill, standing in a vineyard of unsold merlot grapes. “You raise a beautiful crop, and it’s really a nice vintage this year, and you drop it on the ground. It’s sad. All your work is just down the toilet.”
Berryhill, who owns Berryhill Family Vineyards near Lodi in the San Joaquin Valley, said he can’t find buyers for grapes grown on 200 of his 500 acres (202 hectares). He plans to remove 50 acres (20 hectares) of vineyards when the harvest season is over.
“I will lose money for sure. It’s just a matter of how much,” Berryhill, 68, said. “This has been a big loser for three years now.”
At its peak during the pandemic, California had almost 600,000 acres (242,811 hectares) of vineyards, but farmers have removed or stopped actively growing wine grapes on roughly 25% of that land, said Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers, which represents about 500 farmers statewide.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
Good point. There are some 12 ABV beers out.
To me it’s as if they breaded the sugar out. No sweetness anymore.
Isn’t wine distilled?
I looked it up. Neither. It’s just fermented.
“To me it’s as if they breaded the sugar out. No sweetness anymore.“
Exactly! 25 years ago I told my wife not to buy fruit from California. She made a few mistakes and found out why I told her not to buy it. No flavor!
Well, I’m ready for some low low prices.
GLP1 users
No liquor is distilled. With wine you just add sugar or honey or maple syrup depending and then yeast. It ferments for a couple of weeks and then its pretty much wine except for racking it into another container and letting it sit for a few weeks before bottling.
Half of our stuff gets drunk up before it ever hits a bottle. 😉
Wine consumption has been in decline worldwide for a long while. Legalizing pot didn't help.
Can the California farmers switch to muscadines, also called scuppernongs? Those are my favorite kind of grapes, and a farmer’s market near me is selling them right now! Normally they grow in states of the Deep South: Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi.
In some seasons I often see Chilean grapes in the supermarkets”
.
Yes, but do a “taste-test” first. Once, I bought three pounds of green grapes that were so bitter I couldn’t eat them. Also, “Golden Raisins” have never contained so many dark “regular” raisins...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.