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.
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
I recently bought a Cali red on sale, to cook. It’s not fit for it.
I prefer mead, Soju, or sake in that ABV range
Extremely halal.
Grapes are almost $9 a pound. These motherfuckers are out of their mind. A bag of grapes is $15 fucking dollars
I bet it helps a lot alienation an entire market to the north.
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
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
Wine is like $2-5 a bottle in Europe and they also sell more of it there lol
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.
Yeah they could trick the consumer in selling under a decoy name like… wait a minute
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
wine grapes are different varieties than eating grapes. Just like cider apples.
Wasn’t the boycott because of the tariffs?
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.
That was one factor. It is more about the general hostility and aggression the US has shown toward Canada.
No. It’s because of the annexation threats.
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.
Seems like a good time to start making a fuck tun (~million butt loads) of brandy and dump excess inventory into that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit)
1 Million Wine Butts = 126,000,000 US gallons / 105,000,000 Imperial gallons
Extra fun math problem. 1 liter of Brandy often requires 2 to 3 liters of wine. How much wine is needed to make 1 fuck tun of brandy?
Given 1 fuck tun ≈ 1,000,000 wine butts.
1,000,000 wine butts = 126,000,000 US gallons = about 477,000,000 liters of brandy.
If 1 liter of brandy requires 2-3 liters of wine, then:
477,000,000 × 2 = 954,000,000 liters of wine 477,000,000 × 3 = 1,431,000,000 liters of wine
So, to make 1 fuck tun of brandy, you need roughly 954 million to 1.43 billion liters of wine.
That is about 382-572 Olympic swimming pools of wine. Or, more scientifically, about one fucking billion liters of wine.
2 to 3 fuck tuns[sic]
shouldnt have depend on your sole source of customer base to ONE client. one of the tng episodes , showed how either party starts to decline both will be affected severely.
Allegiance, Season 3, Episode 18. 🖖
Wait until “it” happens and wine sales will go through the roof!
My wife is doing her part to keep that demand up.
Hey…I’m doing the best I can…I’m only one guy…
Seems pretty obvious to me to convert it to food. World needs calories.
The world does not have a shortage of calories. The world has a shortage of getting food to the people who need it, but so so so much food is thrown away. Wine grapes would be incredibly low on the list to try and save. What would help far more is stepping in to help cut down on food waste and increase processes to get food from where it is to the people that do need it.
And fix wealth inequality.
Might have been more true in the past but with wars and droughts and crazy weather, well you can see the effect on food prices.
Except we still have a huge surplus of calories. It would take a LOT more destruction of farms and bad weather for us to actually have a calorie deficit. Wars destroy logistics more than anything else, and logistics are what is needed to get food to hungry people.
https://globalcommunityweekly.substack.com/p/wont-be-short-lived-jpmorgan-warns
https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/sustainability/climate/food-security-under-pressure
These articles are everywhere. Don’t use the past when when thinking about future conditions.
Food prices are not rising out of scarcity of food.
Or rewilded solar farms. That requires not trying to make enough money to drown the sun from the sky though
Agriculture land in california is pretty damn productive. Solar can go in deserts.
Only because I did the math a while back - dedicating around 10% of the land we grow corn on for ethanol - converting that to solar - would give us enough energy to supply 100% of US can transporation energy needs (i.e. if everyone converted to electric cars). We’d have 90% of that corn-grown-for-ethanol land freed up to do whatever, and not impact any land used to grow food we (or animals) eat.
That said, using desert for solar also makes tons of sense.
Not that I know much about it, but you don’t grow corn in the most productive areas. You grow that in hardier areas. California is the best for fruit and vegetables.
Another reason not to use our best ag land for solar. :)
Mixed solar-crop fields have been reported to do pretty well. Though I haven’t seen for grape+solar.
It depends heavily on the crop, and on the climate. I believe it works well for lettuce, for example, because lettuce needs shade, but other crops (I think ones with more sugar in them, hence need more sunlight) are adversely affected
grape+solar.
aka raisin land :)
(simple stupid pun/joke)
The irony is, a lot of agricultural land in California is quasi desert (central valley). They irrigate.
If they’re lucky, growers can sell their uncontracted grapes at a loss to buyers making concentrated syrup.
Part of the problem being ridiculous contracts that prevent the grapes from being sold or given away even if the person who contracted them decides they don’t want the grapes
Not that knowledgable but I think wine grapes don’t make good food. What I meant is that you convert the land to grow something else.
You are allowed to grow cannabis and hemp instead. it grows right out of the dirt! It’s crazy
Also, please be advised that you can grow a large variety of fruits and vegetables. CHECK IT OUT
Third-generation grower Bill Berryhill said it means another year of losing money and wasting hundreds of tons of healthy grapes.
Learn to code, Bill.
… oh wait
I actually don’t think weed would grow well there. Wine grapes are usually grown in hotter drier regions. Weeds better grown more on the far northern parts of California in Humboldt where it’s more of a PNW climate.
Wine is a terrible waste of grapes anyway.
