Research supports the health benefits of regular and moderate consumption of wine, particularly polyphenol-rich red wine. The practice has been associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular conditions, type 2. Biodynamic winemaking follows a holistic approach, integrating organic farming practices with the overall health of the vineyard ecosystem. Practices relevant to these basic pillars include hedging and basal leaf removal, training systems, vine spacing, crop control and shoot density.
With the growing competitive landscape in the wine industry, enhanced knowledge of consumer preferences can help wineries and wine retailers improve. Winemakers must take a holistic approach to winemaking that benefits the environment, conserves natural resources, protects wildlife, and supports local communities. Closed systems based on recycling of waste and effluents can help save energy in winemaking.
In summary, wine production is not inherently sustainable, degrading land, water, and air while reinforcing social injustices and inequity. Sustainable winemaking practices include organic and biodynamic farming, renewable energy sources, and efficient water usage. Winemakers must take a holistic approach that benefits the environment, conserves natural resources, protects wildlife, and supports local communities.
To elevate their business reputation and lower their carbon footprint, winemakers should position themselves as both the creator and caretaker of their wine. Creating a “caloric budget” for the day and being mindful of food intake are essential for enjoying wine without exceeding the total caloric intake.
Health and safety is a legal requirement for all businesses, including wineries, to prevent workplace injury. Research suggests that moderate wine consumption is linked to various health benefits, including improved heart health, reduced blood pressure, and relaxation.
📹 Power To Save: Sustainable winemaking
We show you a vineyard that wants to turn a profit without bankrupting the environment in this Power To Save report.
📹 California Wineries on Brink of Losing Everything
California is home to some of the world’s most renowned wine regions, including Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Lodi, making it a top …
Let me just say… I’ve been living in the Napa Valley for nearly a quarter century. When I first moved here there were far fewer wineries and far fewer acreage available for planting. Over the years thousands of acres of oaks were cut down to make land available for grapes. Many saw $$$ and jumped on the band wagon. Over the years there has become a glut of grapes. In addition twenty-five years ago wineries didn’t charge for tastings. Now you need a reservation and it will cost you at least $20, just to taste. For a very long time the wine industry has been making money hand over fist. They use cheap labor, benefit from the local officials being lenient, etc. If it had not been for greed they would not be in as bad of a position. Over production and the high cost of their products is a huge part of their problem. Blaming competition is like complaining that your neighbors lawn is greener than yours. That’s life! Many, many vintners and wine growers have become exceptionally wealthy over the years, now they’re crying about a little slump?
My neighbor is a small winery, near oroville, always been successful that I could see with full parking lots on the tasting weekends, live music I can hear from my house, and it was good wine. Last year they sold the vineyard to their children and moved to Mexico, I haven’t seen their children do anything with the grapes this year. I used to get all the squeezed out pulp from them for my cows and goats to spend a nice week drunk out of their minds, we all gonna miss that…
Agreed 100 %. It’s the same old story in California. A area, or lifestyle becomes ‘cool’ and gets popular, so the wanna-be’s find out. The wealthy then come barging in, pricing out everyone that made that place, or thing cool, then ruin it for everyone. The real estate and tech industries started it, now the wine country experience is all about their money too. Did I mention all the billionaires and their corporations took over Napa and Sonoma and nobody cool is day tripping, or going up for the weekend, or buying their overpriced no fun wine ta$ting$ or vintages anymore? Just file another one under ‘money ruins everything…’.
Around my farm there are thousands of acres of abandoned vineyards for sale. These vineyards are for sale with no buyers because of the cost to remove them, and the aspect of no other profitable crops to take their place. Inflation has pushed up the cost to produce all crops, especially here in California.
The wine just isn’t that good to be honest. Came back from France and a $8 bottle is better than a local $40 bottle at the winery. Also, most wineries are shifting to wedding venue and it seems like wine is an afterthought. Young generation thing I don’t believe, maybe $17 a glass is the issue. Also, winery store fronts in urban areas are boring, its the same vintage, don’t like it? Well can’t wait a year for another vintage. We need more dynamic wine bars that offer variety and competitive price points.
I am almost 67 yrs old and what this gentleman said about boomers is accurate to my experience. I have maybe 12 cases of excellent Napa and Bordeaux. I have lost the desire for drinking wine as I have gotten older. The bottles I have left are special occasion/too valuable to open. I have opened a few but my tastes have changed. Good wine is very expensive. I quit buying and laying down years ago. 25 or so years of good wine for me and now I don’t really care about it. Parker is gone too.
It seemed to take forever to get to the actual explanation of California winery decline. In short, worldwide competition and secondly the outrageous collective cost of California government. No product or service can long survive bad government in the private sector. California has become a socialist nanny state that micromanages everything and anything, expect very bad economic consequences as a result.
Stuart Spencer: “I’m not quite sure what our future’s gonna look like….” Me (and the rest of humanity): If you don’t change your politicians and political/social policies your future is going to look like fertilizer. Certainly, do away with foreign subsidies. But don’t enact state/federal local subsidies either. Anyone can tell you why California wine (or California ‘anything’) is not competitive…(and you are wrong, Patrick Cappiello…..the ‘why’ is indeed something you can change.) What is the cost of gasoline in California to run equipment and transport product? How much alternate equipment/cost are required to conform to state engine regulations? What are the costs of water and scope of water regulations in California? What are the labor costs in California? What are the property taxes in California? What are the employment taxes in California? What other environmental regulations are there in the industry and what are the costs associated? How much real money does it cost a California company to comply with DEI and ESG requirements? How much are the various insurances required to do business in California? How much are the various permits required to do business in California? How is California wine tourism affected by super high costs of California gas, lodging, rental cars, restaurants, groceries, road tolls, flights, parking, etc. How much expensive California wine can a typical Californian afford? No, let’s just focus primarily on stiff competition from the rest of the world, younger generations not drinking as much wine and grocery stores not promoting high priced local wines to local people.
As a wine consumer and owner of a winery/vineyard I’d say that the quality and the price of ca grown wine is not at par with other regions. I just had a Greek rose wine which cost me under 30 dollars and it was simply incredible. I mean one of the best wines I’ve ever had I went and ordered a couple of cases of it to drink it over the next year. I cannot even think of a similar quality rose from California. So, this is not as Black and white regulations affecting the quality of wine. More importantly is the outrageous price of land in CA and that’s 100 percent regulation related. This old farmers he mentions who have owned land have benefited from the rise in the value of land period. It is too costly to come and buy a new vineyard and improve quality suddenly your price per bottle goes past 100 and that’s a very small market which tends to buy established well known wines. Too much grape growing and as he said a generational shift away from wine consumption. Younger people are buying foreign wines bc the quality is also better not simply bc of lower price. I remember after 08 I’d go up to Sonoma or Napa and you’d hear of grapes sitting on the wines unpicked. Yet people kept planting more grapes for wine making. Clearly a disconnect with the supply demand dynamics here talks about. A lot of this land is in the Williamson act so it benefits from lower taxes as long as it remains as agricultural. So there are a lot of government subsidies in CA as well. Here’s a point about quality of California wines they refuse to label the ingredients in their wines.
I took customers out to Napa and Sonoma for years. We’d go and do tasting room tours, buy wines, eat at great restaurants. It was so fun and we have great memories. When visiting so many wineries you’d get on their email lists and you could then buy wines to ship in. This was great too. Here’s the problem. That was the late 80’s and 90’s when a good bottle of wine from these vineyards would cost $40/bottle or so shipped in by the case. Now, that same vineyard sells their wines for $100, $200, and more per bottle. They’ve priced even the most ardent enthusiasts right out of the market.
The problem from my view is when the baby boomers started drinking lots of wine everyone wanted to get on the band wagon. The market slowed down and now there is over supply. Works with lots of businesses. Fast food is another one. When people slow down eating fast food and there is a fast food restaurant on every corner there isn’t enough business to go around.
I stopped by US wine years ago. I can find bottles of European wines for under $15 that I am more than happy drinking. I’m not buying this is just a function of subsidies of foreign governments nor tax subsidies for imports. How about the cost of land in CA vs that in Europe that has passed down from generation to generation. I’m fine with the domestic wine industry going out of business. We still pay twice what the Europeans pay in Europe and it’s still cheaper than buying CA wines. Sorry but if the economics don’t work for growing wine grapes in CA it’s not like it a matter of national security. Sounds like over supply to me.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, better known as the 2018 Farm Bill, signed into law in late December 2018, removed “hemp” – defined as cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) and derivatives of cannabis with “extremely low concentrations of the psychoactive compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol” (no more than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis) – from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Prior to the enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill, the CSA did not differentiate between marijuana and hemp, and all cannabis (with certain exceptions) was a Schedule I substance and, therefore, controlled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). By carving “hemp” out from the definition of “marihuana” – the Schedule I controlled substance – Congress effectively legalized the cultivation and sale of hemp (as well as “all” of its “derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids,” and more) at the federal level. Make hemp products – clothing, paper, hemp wood and plywood. This can overtake the unused vineyards.
We are seeing California fail drastically and we still voting in folks that created the great California downfall in my opinion. Too sacred to vote out government out, too afraid to vote our political leaders out and this what they have to say to the American people. I am rich and your poor just my opinion. At the end of the day if Americas can’t afford to buy anything, how can the rich stay rich? That’s right they negotiate with foreigners
Another thing is that Generation X is the first generation to do worse financially when compared to their parents generation. You have three generations starting with Gen X that don’t expect to ever be able to retire like their parents have because of exorbitant inflation and wages that haven’t kept up with housing, food, fuel, auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance, utilities etc… There is very little money left over to save let alone buy wine. This especially prevalent in California. This is the result of 50 years of one sided politics.
One way to get consumers to think about buying American and California wines might be to provide certified batch level toxicology information on the bottle labels. For example, when the wildfires burned hundreds of homes in Napa and Sonoma, I think that some ash and smoke residues from say hundreds of lead car batteries going up in smoke must have affected the grapes, at least compared to a year when there were no such fires. So some testing that provides assurance that levels of airborne pollutants such as methyl mercury, pesticide residues, and lead might provide some assurance that would not be present on the imported wines.
I see the main issue as vastly reduced wine consumption in restaurants. When presented with a charge of $15 for a single glass of wine, I’ll just think “no it’s not worth it.” I suspect many many restaurant goers react the same way. And today I just saw a CA champagne I used to buy for $13.99 is now $21.99 at Von’s. Sorry I’ll buy a $9 Prosecco instead.
I love California wine and live down the road from Napa Valley. I tried most of those “iconic” wines so I don’t care for them anymore. My passion now is finding those farmers who farm their own grapes and I know it’s going straight to them and their families vs some big company outsourcing cheap grapes from abroad from God knows who. I’ve also cut back because of health reasons. Wine really isn’t that great for our health. I’m sorry to hear the farmers are suffering and will continue to do what I can to support the little guys. My current favorite is 100% Smith-Madrone. Please let me know what other small wineries you guys recommend…
And the rest of us are supposed to care why? You get what you vote for & you did it to yourself. I’m sure Pelosi & Newsom will get right on giving a crap😂😂 Fewer people are drinking wine now & wines from CA just don’t taste that good especially for the price. Supply & demand – I just don’t want federal taxpayer dollars bailing anyone out or covering the loss
It’s not a California thing or political thing. The whole industry is collapsing due to people shifting their taste from wines to beers and so on. And for this guy to sit there to blame California for this, that’s a joke. Vendors are able to source their grapes from wherever they find to be the cheapest. If California vineyards charge a really hefty price for their grapes then good luck selling it. It’s just economics.
Drinking wine for a healthier heart was the biggest myth of my generation. Most of my friends and family simply used it as an alternative source of alcohol. And everyone got fatter and not any fitter. (BTW… the French are less fat because they eat less processed food garbage and more traditional foods. If we stopped on fast food, sugar-laden cereals and those horrible snacks, our average weight would be 20 lbs less)
My family had a winery started 1880s in Napa Valley then prohibition shut it down. In 1972 my grandfather established a winery in the Napa Valley which I worked on off an on in the 1980s. One is the expense of how a bottle of wine cost even my family’s wine is of my price range, so I spend my money on other things instead.
Yup, we’ve dramaticaly decreased our wine consumption. Our neighbors, some with vineyards, barely drink any alcohol any more, mainly due to health reasons. I remember perusal that 60 Minutes episode, yet the supposed benefits of wine consumption haven’t borne out – even France is seeing huge decline in sales – French estimate 30% of vineyards will go out of production – it’s so bad in France that the French government now pays vineyards to sell milliins of gallons of excess wine so it can be made into industrial alcohol, just to get rid of it all.
Nail polished guy is too hopeful. He sounds and looks suspicious. Very young and uninformed compared to the 1st dude. Drinking wine is like smoking a cigarette. Sooo many kinds of cigarettes and wine. An acquired TASTE. 🤔👸🏼🤔. Most men don’t drink wine. I can just see it now. Hey lets go drink wine at the club? Hey get me a bottle of wine after doing construction or working on my car? Maybe if you drink enough wine a man will get DARK finger nails? 🤦♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏼♂️🤦😬😬😬😶🌫️🍷👀💅👥️👀
I understand the cost of staying in business but are these grapes eatable or are they only good for wine? If they are eatable why can’t they be sent to schools, shelters, food banks, low income neighborhoods, etc. I know this may sound unthinkable but what about taking some of the land (removing some of the growing land) and creating a boutique type housing based on wine and quality food. Maybe 4-8 apartments/experience rentals, away from the growing land but still having a view of the vineyards and quality food experiences. An old high school friends family did something like this and they ended up doing well.
Similar issues with cannabis growers. The cost of switching to Compliance is outrageous for small farmers. Compound that with the price per pound having tanked while the costs of doing business and the cost of living gone up it makes it really hard to make it work in California. It’s like the state doesn’t want anything to work for anyone.
I grew up in France where people at the times bought wine in crate of 12 bottles, some would have 2 or more crates and the wine dealer van would stop in regular basis, people would leave the crate with empty bottles by their front door and the wine dealer would take the empty and leave full bottles . A glass of what we called ” table wine ” cost around $0.60 at the bar versus $1.50 for a soda .
Great to see how well the federal and state governments take care of US industry and US citizens. NOT! Politicians and beaureaucrats couldn’t care less. I wonder if big lobby payoffs are at work here. Whats happening to the wine industry is also happening to many other US businesses. Competition is great, but only if its fair. Government’s thumb on the scale doesn’t help.
How about a Denomination of Origin stamp on the bottle? An association of local small producers would be able to manage it. A co-op even better. You guys need to unite and get the job done. Build a cooperative like many other people did all over the world for many different products: wine, milk, cheese, charcuterie, etc… Best wishes from southern Brazil.❤
I wonder. Are there other markets for the grapes BESIDES wine? Could they be sold as eating grapes or raisins? Or could they be made into grape juice? And isn’t vinegar made from grapes as well? Perhaps there are even more surprising uses like: soil supplements, animal feed, or basic ingredients for sauces? There might even be a market for grapes as exotic additions in the kitchen. Just imagine the special and unique natural flavors that all the different varieties of grapes could infuse into a dining experience. And don’t forget that the humble peanut was once only for eating until thousands of OTHER uses were eventually discovered for it.
The average salary in Spain or Italy is around 3 times lower than that in California, yet the average price of a bottle of wine is 10 times cheaper in those european countries. One more thing, I worked in a liquor store in Sydney they mainly sold spanish and italians wines but also some south africans, chileans, and australians too so i tasted them and as an average wine consumer can not tell the difference among all the mentioned denominations, all them have good winnes. Jesus Christ is wine not rocket science no matter what they say in order to promote them. The moral being winne is always been cheap and should be cheap for the general public, let the expert rejoy, a minority, rejoy in this or that harvest, the year, …whatever but for the average Joe 4 to 5 usd a bottle of decent drinkable wine.
Coffee went the same route. There was a time when it was easy to get beans labeled from the source country. Now it’s just cute names with little to no source info. I left wine behind over a decade ago and now coffee will go the same way. Higher price with lower quality is not something I would be fond of engaging in.
fascinating topic with too many variables . Across Europe less alcohol Is consumed. other problems I see are specifically Californian, with high wages, high taxes, fees, energy costs etc. Making wine in California, especially in Sonoma and other luxury real estate markets is silly really. The water situation is prohibitive and I think growing wine in a climate zone which does not naturally allow wine production is an obvious problem. In Spain and Italy you will see changes due to water problems. There is a serious lack of water in Spain. Italy is turning sub tropical due to climate change.
It’s interesting to me that the CA Winemakers representative talks about community as the basis for maintaining a market that is robust and sustainable. California has made it clear their agricultural industries are not part of the communities the State is willing to defend and support. I know a lot of people in the State are frustrated with a lot of things the State is doing to its people and industries, so much so that some people and entire corporations have decided to leave. The CA Winemakers rep says vintners can’t just pull up stakes and leave; I agree. I’d like to see California reassess the State’s relationships with the Growers in the State that have fed the entire world in the past and make changes in the way those small and medium agricultural business operators are treated so they don’t perceive their treatment from the State as that of an overseer closely perusal and prodding an adversarial subject. I’d like to see the United States do the same. Seriously, why are we funding subsidies for wine importers that become blend feed for “American” wines? Understand what you’re legislative representatives are doing on your behalf. If you don’t, you’re having their whims done to you, instead of for you. They CAN be held accountable. It’s time they are.
While it is unfortunate for the wineries it is beneficial for society to phase out consuming alcohol. Normalize connecting with each other or ourselves instead of numbing out. I’m hoping it will also save the state more water or redirect the water supply to something better and sustainable. Most people have been struggling in a multitude of ways one of them financially. Most can’t afford to splurge and alcohol is not a necessity. I’m hoping the silver lining for the struggles to come will teach us about what really matters in life.
I don’t know about California specifically but nationwide it just seems like supply and demand is starting to even out. I live in Washington state, there’s a whole lot of wineries up here also. I’m from Colorado, there’s a whole Lotta grapes being grown there too everywhere you look grapes, grapes grapes, grapes, grapes. Who the hell is drinking all this wine? I think supply is way more than demand right now. Time to start growing some other things.
Last i checked a few years back, Napa seemed to be one of the few populated areas left in California on the map for the Wildlands Project… (comprehend). So what would the vineyards be needed for, if it is slated to be filled with apartments and turned into one of the 15 minute cities (comprehend) ??
I travel regularly up and down the state, and spend a lot of time in Sonoma County, and can say that there are too many acres now under cultivation for grapes. Greed and big ag are the problems here. He said in the interview that farmers are saying, “If I pull out my vineyard, what will I go into?”. Well, what what the land use before the grapevines were planted? So much acreage was formerly rolling hills of inland valley oak, or some other food crop, etc. Vineyards are ecological deserts – almost no growers make room for the nature around them, they douse crops with pesticides, fungicides, etc. Let’s really evaluate land use/abuse and get the giant corporations out of the business.
Please qualify cheap imports. I was born and raised in Italy. Came to California in 1979. There was no significant production or consumption of wine back then. Wineries in Napa and Sonoma were developing from small family enterprises, often rewriting history. In the last 45 years I have witnessed a transformation from the small mom and paps enterprises to mega producers and growers, joining in a worldwide explosion in wine production. California, from Eureka to San Diego is a huge vineyard. Miles and Miles of beautifully cared rows of grapes. There’s just too much wine around and too expensive wine. Wine is a grassroot product. It is a cultural product. In the US wine has morphed into a big business, industrial product, precisely controlled from grape seedlings to fermentation and bottling. The art of wine making, the variation, the vintage difference is mostly gone. It is all technology now and the US cannot compete. I make my own wine, most of the years out of my own grapes. Sometimes some bottles are not perfect but most are. I love to make it and drink it with friends.
During my vacation in France last week, we traveled to Bordeaux to wineries, they told us that 40% of their wines are exported to US which is majority export. They probably pay no tax coming here. We need to tax them and also lower prices for US wines. Napa has become too expensive and oversees wines r much cheaper.
I’m in the ag business. You should be very more specific. Small farms are struggling. Yes this has been going on for a long time. A winery would be the absolute definition of a small farm. Make no mistake corporate agra business in the state of California is absolutely booby. Please do not sit here and paint a picture at the state of California is decimating the agriculture business. Open your eyes and drive down Highway five and you can see it for yourself. Furthermore, look at the data of new building in the central Valley in total exports. We are the bread basket for a reason. Corporate America gets subsidized waterand if they don’t get it, they’ll just drill 1000 feet deep and take it for free. Like the reporting, but please be more accurate.
I can afford expensive wine but I just cannot find a good one! More expensive is not at all better. This coppola guy should rather do something else instead of wine making, his wine is aweful! Then here is this new DAO or what, with higher alcohol content, I got sick for 3 days after drinking it. There are no good wines on the market today, ones that I would buy with pleasure!
I live in wine country. Smaller wineries in Somerset, Fairplay in southern El Dorado county. Our wineries struggle as well but offer community based food and entertainment and community. I am sad to hear about the big wineries suffering so much. I think agriculture should be allowed to offer camping with wine education to bring in more income. I love California and I love California wine.
Wine industry been fing retail for a long time. Wine out of touch for anyone besides the boomers. Funniest part of this whole article is the guy nervously plying with his wedding ring. Wine growers are so fed in a-hole. There is literally no reason for us younger generations to shell out $30 for a bottle. Have fun but pass Robles Napa whatever is going to go down like the titanic and fast
This is a good thing… As a truck driver throughout California I have wondered for 20 years why are there this many grapes being grown… And NAPA will sell you a bottle of wine for $200 😉 & nobody eats raisins anymore!? … Michael dusi trucks, used to haul that liquid grape juice all up and down the State 🍷 🤫 I could be wrong, but I heard it through the grapevine🪄
So tge guy in the cap its tell usvto Drink more California wine? Hmmmm i need a drin, said the alcoholic. Wow this website is worried about commentors saying bad words and being courteous to each other. Yet here we have a guest speaker basically saying get drunk off California wine? 😶🌫️😬🫣🙃 Oh yeah with round-up fertilized grapes. Hmm yummy expensive taste. $300 to $100 dollar for a bottle that doesn’t even get you drunk. Yeah i can see that being a great idea. Even the cheapest bottle of wine costs 15 bux.
I was a strong supporter of only buying California wine. Now, I can no longer afford to buy it and I’ve been buying more affordable French wine. The reasons are my home insurance doubled and I have to buy separate fire insurance through the California fair plan. Then, add on property and car insurance too. I also cook more at home and vacation less. California is just becoming too expensive:(
Alcohol is the legal lie that will eventually find one in front of a Court judge, inevitably. Had we enjoyed wine, would my name have still been Fu I don’t care at midnight, words from my alcoholic roommate worthy of a Supreme Court Justice. And then there’s the taste, yuck. I have never tasted a good tasting wine and I’m not interested in the horrific headaches that accompany alcohol. I do not want to talk with anybody under the influence of wine or any alcoholic beverage. And then the price. I moved to a new town. I am proud to say I have never been in the liquor store except to say I’ve never been in the liquor store the one time I went in to say I’ve never been in here before and I am proud I have put alcoholism behind me. How does one feel euphoric without drugs and alcohol? Having money in your pocket and no reason to be in front of a judge, going to jail. The joys of childhood can be replicated because there was no need for alcohol then and there’s no need for alcohol now to find joy in the simple everyday things. Alcohol is a scam that ruins the lives that consume it. Perhaps it’s better to grow tulips.
I love a great red wine. Had some from Lodi if we’re talking about market forces being able to run freely I’m hearing two things from this man. Let the free market run, but when we begin to falter provide subsidies government support? I have stopped going to Napa Valley because of the cost of tastings. Not uncommon for $50 tastings really? Maybe the market forces will help people like me enjoy more red wine at a more economical cost. So I’m not choosing to feel your pain.
Retired, but 40 years as avocado producer, I have seen non-harvest years. Meaning price was so low that it was economically unconscionable to harvest. One week durning the harvest season the pay price for #1 fruit was 16 cents a pound or equals 8 cents for an 8 ounce avocado. These wine grape prices will destroy lives of some growers completely. Others can benefit from unreasonable low grape prices and bulk store the wine for later years. But farmers don’t have that kind of cash for that scenario of holding inventory. What is different in California compared to other growing regions? Well the rules we live by. Meaning the results of government regulations. Government does not care if you make a profit. If you make money they are your partner via the taxes they take. They don’t take risks, they take a percentage of your profit however. Those farmers who walked away still owe taxes on the land, no forbearance for better years. They will take the land.
Frustrating to read a lot of the comments here because you can tell a lot of these people didn’t really get very far into the article. I get that it’s not a short article but the thing is is you need to understand that a huge part of the problem is largely due to the fact that the US government subsidizes (with our tax money unbeknownst to us) the importation of foreign wine two undercut US Growers. Also this is not just a California issue like some people are claiming, and don’t get me wrong I cannot stand California politics they are atrocious, but it’s not just a California problem. It is a global problem actually.
I recently listened to a radio show here in the UK. Celebrities are licensing their names to wines. I guess there’s a market for that sort of thing. Niche and gullible with more money than sense. If that’s the way to pursue profits don’t be too surprised if volumes decline. Some people produce a quality product at a reasonable price and dispense with the hype. Not necessarily a business model for the get rich quick fraternity I fear.
once wine became “trendy” it was inevitable that there would be a rapid ascent followed by an equally rapid decline when the trend changed. Trends always change and building a business around one is a fools errand. Unfortunately the legacy growers also suffer when a market becomes oversaturated and then out of necessity fails.
Just going to say this as a person who lives in California. The issue isn’t about not being able to sell it. I have been and seen some vineyards. The issue is how much land and money it takes to keep a vineyard. I would say food production and housing might be better for the economy in some of those yards. Btw I’m an alcoholic and I still don’t like how expensive everything in Napa and other areas that are in the wine trade. A canned soda does not cost 3 dollars. It’s an issue when a product starts to cost too much the demand goes down.
While traveling through Germany along the Rhine we viewed miles and miles of grape vines. I live in Napa and see miles and miles of vineyards. I also see wealth and opulence that goes over the top at these wineries. The boom in wine consumption in the 80s & 90s created a huge profitable market. Everyone got on the bandwagon. The party is starting to get a little long in the tooth.
In the 1970’s it became widely known that Chile had the surviving root stocks from European strains no longer cultivated due to disease. I remember travelling in Chile with a large bottle with a woven net around it and getting it filled at any small mom and pop corner shop for just around $3 US. It was always excellent and shortly after, it started appearing in liquor stores, in the US under various brand names. My favorite was the Undurraga Winery Label. It was very reasonably priced and of excellent quality too! The Elites entered the game and as per usual brought the wine industry to its knees through their own greed.
I lived many years close to Alsace…place known for white wine production…you cannot compete with Europe with prices you have in California. When you come to Alsace to buy wine, tasting is for free… and in California? Greedy winemakers will charge you immediately…and then? $30 for bottle of white wine? Really? Decent wine from Alsace on-site €7-9 a bottle…so wake up…
Tell the vintners to grow Sagrantino grapes that allegedly have the highest amount of polyphenols …or continue the research …Health conscious people are interested in products with high polyphenol content Make containers in various sizes and or designs for collectibility or other use (ie real colored glass rather than coated that can then be tumbled and replenish Glass Beach in Ft Bragg) and for various price points and consumption needs Market as a healthy table wine to be used responsibly with meals —like Dr Gundry’s products Make culture of healthy pairings and vineyard picnicking like Navarro Vinyards …make mix and match farm products and other products I drink very few wines, all local to the region, and Jacuzzi Vinyard Sagrantino is the only one I know of and they don’t even have it all the time Look into depriving fruits of water for higher polyphenol content and adjust cultural taste for healthier consumption Also be more obvious about if your vineyard is on the stock market. I have one share @$3 of an Oregon vineyard
Maybe Calif show regulate how many wineries it allows. Napa Valley has over 400 wineries. This is ridiculous and again limited land due to agriculture zoning laws. Not to mention dui’s and deaths on hwys by tourist doing winery tours. This monoculture should not of been allowed but they make money off the tourists, hotel stays, and spending they provide . It’s all about revenue . Throw all your eggs in one baskets and this is what happens.
We have politicians that only care about becoming wealthy and power. Their wealth and power is by head count in their state and has NOTHING to do with business. Head count gets them the state and federal House and Senate and the manipulation of markets, insider trading, etc. Newsom could care less about how many businesses he runs out of California. Head count and manipulation of the people to vote his direction is what it is all about. Labor is ALWAYS the highest cost. As long as politicians can get slave labor from another country and import products, they don’t care. No businesses here can compete when they have to pay $20/hr, social security, massive taxes, health insurance, safety standards, etc. These other countries have minimal cost labor and thought of labor as a throw away, rather than a human needing health insurance or social security. The only way to compete is for either government subsidies or demanding certain levels of treatment of workers worldwide for health insurance, social security, etc. Meanwhile, Newsom or Pelosi will enact laws and insider trade and get wealthy with not a second thought of workers or businesses within the US. Slave labor in another country is never looked at. We get products from China where they have sweatshops, forced labor, organ harvesting, and other horrible conditions for workers and their retirement. We shouldn’t even be trading with such a vile country. We need human standards worldwide.
Your conversation makes it obvious that California is going to lose its capacity for food production… Converting to grapes was a profit move that now has failed. And what had been strawberry fields switched to raspberries because there are more cycles of harvest per year with which to make a money crop. However, it doesn’t matter what the crop is when the farmers struggle to produce it… And farming itself can’t afford to be in production… It’s over. California should have been regarded as the world’s greatest production farm… And if you look too Google and the rest of the digital douchebags of the world… It has held true. Harvesting data bits is the global crop.. other than human enslavement 💖
In the Eastern part of the US, there was a drive to get rid of tobacco growing several years ago. The government programs helped several to start wineries. The wineries have been popular but the eine frequently isn’t as high quality as California wines. Nevertheless, as people purchase Eastern wines, just to try them, they don’t buy the California wines. We were like that for a while as well. We later found out that many of the wines in the East don’t keep as well in storage and a lot of money is lost. We went back to buying California wines and quality wines from Italy, France, Argentina, etc. The state government of California is no friend to small businesses as well.
we live in Sonoma and drink alot of wine. CA wines have gotten too expensive. And at the same time the federal gov’t has been undercutting the US wine industry for years by letting cheap imports in. The midwest gets almost all of the ag money from gov’t. The row crop and fruit growers in CA get no help. And the state does not support the wine industry. They keep adding more regulations which the growers and bottlers can’t afford.
Its seems to me that inflation on cooperage, labor, processing equipment, bottling and taxes is far exceeding the crash in grape prices. This pressure on margins pushes the cost of wine higher and beyond the affordability of average people trying to put food on the table. This coupled with tax free imports and the medical industry telling their clients that alcohol consumption is now bad for ones health, have the makings of a perfect storm for the wine industry.
I grew up in Napa 1962 .There was very few winery’s actually in Napa, it was pears,peaches, apples, prunes the downtown was clean it was a small town . Silverado only had 9 holes . There was the other McDonald’s and yes they had a farm but don’t mess with the twin boys lol. That family worked hard . The police new everyone and was friendly we used to take our rifles as kids and practice targets near the creeks . We never ever thought of shooting people . Napa was cheaper then Vallejo. Last I heard Napa cost one million per acre. Today you couldn’t pay me to live there. The people are weirdos and are rude . Everyone thinks they are better then the other. Personaly I don’t drink wine. I think when they closed Napa state Hospital all the Koo Koos got out . Now parts of downtown looks like Tijuana Mexico. But then again look at what the Democrat ran state looks like everywhere else. We need to change the California Flag JUST FECES ON A WHITE FLAG. Democrat’s have destroyed California.
What can be done with the grapes besides wine? Can you eat them, turn into raisins or used in baking? Can a vineyard sell grapes to DIY winemakers(Upick), and teach? Who to get to change that rule/trade regulation of foreign grapes or was it wine dont pay taxes in US? Who is refunding their taxes if they do pay? Recall many years ago seeing way too many vinyards starting up in so many counties,SLO,SB and clearing beautiful native areas. Maybe interplant with other edible plants and trees and cover crops, to make a different biome. Dont drink wine (caused sulfite reactions except for 1 Leibfraumilch).