Growers face impossible choices

California wine growers are struggling to sell grapes as demand has plummeted. Many are tearing out vineyards their families have grown for generations, forced to choose between harvesting at a loss or switching to other crops.

The scale of the crisis

Wine sales have decreased by more than twenty percent over a five-year period. California growers have taken roughly a quarter of the state's vineyards out of production as prices paid for grapes have dropped sharply.

Bill Berryhill's three-year loss

Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill owns Berryhill Family Vineyards near Lodi in the San Joaquin Valley. He cannot find buyers for grapes on two hundred of his five hundred acres and plans to remove fifty acres of vineyards after harvest.

“I will lose money for sure. It's just a matter of how much. This has been a big loser for three years now.”

Berryhill's despair over waste

Standing in a vineyard of unsold merlot grapes, Berryhill described the pain of losing money on a healthy crop. He said the work feels wasted when beautiful grapes must be dropped on the ground.

“It's just sickening. 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.”

Massive vineyard abandonment

California had almost six hundred thousand acres of vineyards at its peak during the pandemic. Farmers have removed or stopped actively growing wine grapes on roughly twenty five percent of that land, according to Jeff Bitter, president of Allied Grape Growers.

Uncontracted grapes flood the market

This year, about half of California's wine grape crop entered the harvest season without contracts with buyers. In a typical year, seventy to eighty percent of grapes have contracts. Uncontracted grapes can only be sold at a loss to buyers making concentrated syrup.

Sales collapse over five years

In the U.S., wine case sales declined twenty three percent from four hundred twenty seven million in two thousand twenty to three hundred twenty nine million in two thousand twenty five. Total wine spending fell twenty two percent from ninety four billion dollars to seventy four billion dollars.

Young people drinking less alcohol

Baby boomers are aging out of the wine market while young people are drinking less alcohol due to health and financial concerns. Wine faces competition from craft beer, liquor, canned cocktails and cannabis. Tariffs have also reduced exports, particularly to Canada.

“The kids just aren't drinking as much. And it's not just wine, it's whiskey and beer and everything. And then you've also got the competition with all the seltzers.”

Berryhill refuses to surrender

Berryhill, whose grandfather started growing grapes nearly one hundred years ago, says he will not give up on wine despite heavy losses. He loves growing grapes and says it is in his blood, and he will fight through the crisis.

“I love growing grapes. It's in the blood. Because I love them, I can weather this and I'll fight through it.”