This year was a bitter harvest for hundreds of American winegrape growers, as wineries cancelled contracts to purchase their grapes. Now, across the nation, thousands of acres of grapes went unsold this year and have been left to rot on the vine or on the ground, or the vines have been ripped out of the earth.
Why are American vineyards in crisis now, and how will this impact the U.S. wine industry, valued at $325 billion?
The main reason U.S. vineyards are in crisis boils down to an oversupply of wine in the market and in winery inventories, caused by a variety of factors. These include a decline in alcohol consumption, changing consumer demographics, rising inflation pushing wine prices higher, an increase in anti-alcohol groups, tariff pressures, and an influx of new beverage choices on the market, such as hard tea and THC-infused drinks.
“It’s a bloodbath for all grape growers across California. It is the worst market condition growers have seen in their lifetime, with farmers in their 80s telling me they have never seen it this bad before,” reported Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Wine Grape Commission.
As someone who lives surrounded by acres of vineyards in Sonoma County, California, I have witnessed this with my own eyes. Just driving to the grocery store, I pass vineyards with grapes rotting on the vine and others that have been pulled out. When, only two years ago, all of the vines had been harvested and the grapes sold by this time.
“It is estimated that around 30% of Sonoma County grapes went unsold this year,” Karissa Kruse, president of the Sonoma County Winegrowers, told me.
In Napa Valley, Caleb Mosley, executive director for the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, said they didn’t have an actual percentage yet, “but definitely there are grapes that went unsold this year in Napa Valley and Napa County, and some of the wineries walked away from contracts.”
However, in every conversation, these industry experts also discussed some of the proactive and long-term solutions the growers are trying to implement to survive the oversupply situation.
So I decided to reach out to wine grape growers across the nation to see if the situation was as bad in other states, and if so, what solutions they were implementing.
Vineyard crisis extends to all major wine producing states
California, producing 87% of U.S. wine in 2024, according to Wine Business Analytics, has obviously been hit quite hard by the wine oversupply crisis. However, in online interviews with experts in Oregon, Washington, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina - other large wine producing states - I discovered that they were also suffering similar challenging conditions, and trying to identify solutions.
Oregon (874 wineries): “This harvest season, we have heard from our growers that there are some who have had difficulty selling their grapes. Some growers have been able to keep their contracts, while others do not have any at all this season,” stated Gina Bianco, executive director of the Oregon Wine Board.
In terms of solutions, Gina said that “Some owners are pulling out portions of their vineyards for new crops,” or taking the time to investigate new climate and disease resistant rootstocks to plant in the future. “The wine growing industry is navigating a myriad of obstacles, but through all of this, we are still seeing winemakers produce another successful harvest with incredible fruit quality.”
Greg Jones, CEO of Abacela Vineyard and chair of the Oregon Wine Board, reported, “We are seeing growers utilize several tactics, such as reducing management costs and evaluating vineyard design to better match with the climate and overall site productivity.” He added they are also rethinking canopy management, evaluating new grape varieties, and producing bulk wine to try to generate some revenue.
Washington State (854 wineries): “While we don’t have a specific percentage, many growers have shared anecdotally that they don’t have a home for some of their grapes this harvest. This is especially unfortunate given what has been an exceptional growing season,” reported Kristina Kelly, executive director of the Washington State Wine Commission.
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