California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops
Wine sales have fallen 23% since 2020, leaving about half of California’s grape crop without buyers, according to First Citizens Bank.
- As California's harvest season peaks, third-generation grower Bill Berryhill of Berryhill Family Vineyards in Lodi cannot find buyers for 200 of his 500 acres, forcing him to waste healthy grapes.
- Wine sales have declined 23% since 2020, with total spending falling 22% to $74 billion, according to First Citizens Bank, as younger consumers shift away from wine toward beer, spirits, and seltzers.
- Allied Grape Growers president Jeff Bitter reports farmers have removed roughly 25% of California's 600,000 acres of vineyards, while this year about half of the state's wine grape crop entered harvest without buyer contracts.
- Kyle Collins, an Allied Grape Growers operations manager in Lodi, warns the sales drop has "hit local businesses and workers," with farm laborers losing income in a cascading economic effect throughout the region.
- Global wine consumption declined 2.7% in 2025 and 14% since 2018, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine; the industry hopes the market will bottom out soon, though growers absorb heavy losses.
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California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine drops - Regional Media News
LODI, Calif. (AP) - 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 [...]
California farmers are struggling to sell grapes as demand for wine dr
LODI, Calif. (AP) — 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
It is harvest time in the California wine region, but many producers have difficulty selling their grapes, as changes in consumption habits have caused demand to collapse. The fall forces some farmers to uproot vineyards that their families have grown for generations.
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