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submitted 8 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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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[-] Pacattack57@lemmy.world 4 points 2 hours ago

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

[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 3 hours ago

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

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

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.

[-] ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 1 points 1 hour ago

Allegiance, Season 3, Episode 18. 🖖

[-] DevDave@piefed.social 8 points 4 hours ago

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 6 points 4 hours ago

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

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

[-] DevDave@piefed.social 2 points 3 hours ago

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?

[-] 3abas@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

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.

[-] Widdershins@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago

2 to 3 fuck tuns[sic]

[-] rockSlayer@lemmy.blahaj.zone 106 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

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

[-] frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 10 points 5 hours ago

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 7 points 3 hours ago

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 1 points 1 hour ago

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.

[-] nullify3112@lemmy.world 7 points 5 hours ago

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

[-] seat6@lemmy.zip 27 points 6 hours ago

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

[-] 13igtyme@startrek.website 35 points 6 hours ago

When demand goes up, the price goes up.

When demand goes down, the price goes up.

[-] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 7 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

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.

[-] Quokka@quokk.au 4 points 4 hours 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)!

[-] baines@lemmy.cafe 3 points 5 hours ago

im still not buying any

businesses: shockedPikachuFace.jpg

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 62 points 8 hours ago

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.

[-] Cyclist@lemmy.world 17 points 5 hours ago

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 4 points 2 hours ago

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

[-] myyass@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

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.

[-] bitchkat@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

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

[-] mephiska@lemmy.world 31 points 7 hours ago

Wasn’t the boycott because of the tariffs?

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 13 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

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 4 points 5 hours ago

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 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours 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.

[-] just2look@lemmy.zip 27 points 7 hours ago

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

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[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

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 4 points 5 hours ago

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.

[-] lemmyng@lemmy.world 13 points 7 hours ago

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

[-] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 16 points 8 hours ago

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

[-] ShredderFeeder@shredderfood.net 5 points 7 hours ago

Hey...I'm doing the best I can...I'm only one guy...

[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 8 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

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

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 12 points 7 hours ago

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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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2026
177 points (98.4% liked)

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