this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
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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.

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[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 185 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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

[–] seat6@lemmy.zip 51 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah; I thought a 20% decrease in sales would lead to a decrease in cost.

[–] 13igtyme@startrek.website 75 points 1 week ago (3 children)

When demand goes up, the price goes up.

When demand goes down, the price goes up.

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 24 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] cloudshouter@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 week ago

The really fun thing about the capitalist economy is that only the corporate retail side is allowed to win. The growers are going to get the least, the people who put the label on get the most and the stores get whatever they want.

[–] Quokka@quokk.au 8 points 1 week ago

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)!

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[–] frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 week ago (8 children)

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

[–] myyass@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] nullify3112@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

Yeah they could trick the consumer in selling under a decoy name like… wait a minute

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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 8 points 1 week ago (7 children)

It can also be distilled into just ethanol.

Probably has some uses. Fuel. Disinfectant. Making those little toys of a bird that drinks water.

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[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 100 points 1 week ago (5 children)

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.

[–] mephiska@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Wasn’t the boycott because of the tariffs?

[–] just2look@lemmy.zip 47 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That was one factor. It is more about the general hostility and aggression the US has shown toward Canada.

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[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 36 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] decolo@piefed.social 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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)

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

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[–] alsimoneau@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

No. It's because of the annexation threats.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

The boycott was because of a threat to annex Canada, repeatedly by the US Ambassador Hoeskra, who is an even bigger asshole than Trump, if that were even possible.

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[–] Cyclist@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.

[–] defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Nah, you're fine. Most American farmers voted for Trump anyway.

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[–] myyass@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

No need to apologize. The whole American farming industry needs a redo anyway.

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[–] bitchkat@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

wine grapes are different varieties than eating grapes. Just like cider apples.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago

But USA does not need Canada! It's just money! US doesn't care about money!

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] Warehouse@piefed.ca 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] locahosr443@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago (10 children)

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

[–] bluefootedbooby@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 week ago

Same! Since about the beginning of the year I always get European wines and Irish whiskey.

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[–] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 1 week ago

I bet it helps a lot alienation an entire market to the north.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Then why is everything still $40/bottle? This is some bs “nobody wants to work anymore” logic. I stopped drinking California wine because the prices kept going up but my wages haven’t.

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[–] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Grapes are almost $9 a pound. These motherfuckers are out of their mind. A bag of grapes is $15 fucking dollars

[–] Mantzy81@aussie.zone 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Table grapes and wine grapes are not the same thing.

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[–] AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Well, the usual "free market"bullshit would dictate that the price drops until it finds enough demand again. But thanks to whatever bull shit system we currently have the price stays the same and they just write off everything that doesn't sell and they throw it away.

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[–] baeb66@lemmy.today 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A lot of the regions in California have become stupid expensive, like Napa and Sonoma. Anything decent out of Napa is in the $30-$50 range. The average bottle price is somewhere around $75.

And the entry-level stuff from Europe is better than the entry-level stuff from California. If I had to choose between a $15 Cabernet from California and a $15 Bordeaux, I'm choosing the Bordeaux. You'll also get a better price/quality ratio out of South America. Chile and Argentina make some good wines.

[–] cantstopthesignal@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

I really like wine and for the life of me I can't find a single California wine that is worth the price point when compared to Europe. Not to mention there's so much overmarketed slop wine that does every dirty trick in the book to make it taste disgustingly sweet or over-oaked. I very rarely have had a bad European wine for $50 and I can say that about half of the California wines in that range were worse than 25$ European counterparts. Maybe some of the $500+ bottles really are great in comparison to some of the Grand Crus out of Burgundy, but I haven't found anything in a reasonable price range that was worth it. And like you said, other regions in the world punch enormously above their price range that I basically don't buy anything from the Napa area of California as a matter of course. There are a few less popular regions in Cali that make great wine, but they are still too expensive for what they are.

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[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

My wife is doing her part to keep that demand up.

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

Canada's also not buying as much California wine due to Trump's trade war and general insulting manner.

[–] lemmyng@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Wait until "it" happens and wine sales will go through the roof!

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[–] Widdershins@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And the smell of rot fills the country.

Steinbeck 1939

[–] DevDave@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Seems like a good time to start making a fuck tun (~million butt loads) of brandy and dump excess inventory into that.

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (3 children)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butt_(unit)

1 Million Wine Butts = 126,000,000 US gallons / 105,000,000 Imperial gallons

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[–] Mulligrubs@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

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

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[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (17 children)

Seems pretty obvious to me to convert it to food. World needs calories.

[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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.

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