California wine country is going through some massive changes.
Currently, Americans are drinking less alcohol than ever—only 54 percent of people consume booze, a 90-year low—which dredges up quite a few problems for the wine industry at large. As a result of that low demand and a massive decline in sales, producers in the Golden State have ripped out nearly 40,000 acres of vines over the past year, according to a new report from the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG).
From October 1, 2024, to August 1 of this year, 38,194 acres of winegrapes were removed, the 2025 Standing Winegrape Acreage study says. That means, overall, farmers ripped out 7 percent of California vines, leaving around 477,000 acres behind. San Joaquin saw the most removal, with 7,796 acres ripped out, which equals 10 percent of the vineyards found there; following behind is Fresno, which saw 6,250 acres disappear. Rounding out the top four is Monterey and Napa, which had 3,781 and 3,117 acres removed, respectively.
Growers, hoping to avoid that grape surplus in 2025, saw Americans’ lack of demand affect last year’s harvest, which was the lightest California had experienced two decades—a 23 percent drop from 2023 that was mainly due to grapes left unpicked, The San Franscico Chronicle reported. Over the past two years, farmers had issues selling their crops, leading growers to leave 100,000 tons of grapes to rot in the vineyards.
Though, the removal of the vines doesn’t spell out entirely bad news. The process could, in fact, help rectify that excess of grapes, causing supply to eventually even out with demand. That may mean that the 2025 grape crush is even less than the year prior—in the realm of 2 million and 2.5 million tons versus 2.8 million, Jeff Bitter, president of a cooperative of California growers called Allied Grape Growers, said in a CAWG press conference. Plus, he predicts that California needs around 425,000 acres of vines to hit a balanced market, meaning even more vine removal may be on the horizon.
As for folks in the U.S. drinking less alcohol, even those who are dabbling in spirits and wine are consuming less overall, with their average number of drinks over seven days dropping to 2.8, down from 3.8 per week in 2024. If those numbers continue to decline, that could spell out more troubles for the wine industry yet.
