California Wineries on Brink of Losing Everything
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 1 ต.ค. 2024
- California is home to some of the world's most renowned wine regions, including Napa Valley, Sonoma, and Lodi, making it a top global wine producer. However, the state’s wine industry is facing a significant slowdown in sales. Wineries are filled with unsold inventory and grape growers are struggling to find buyers for their grapes, even at steep discounts.
"Some of our older growers that have been farming 60 to 70 years, in some cases, say this is the worst they’ve ever seen. Last year, an estimated 400,000 tons of grapes were left on the vine in 2023 because they couldn’t sell them. It was never harvested," says Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission.
Join us as we look into the world of wineries in California, what's behind this slowdown and downturn in the state's wine industry, and how it's impacting everyone from farmers to winemakers. Siyamak sits down with Spencer; Patrick Cappiello, winemaker at Monte Rio Cellars in Sonoma County; and Craig Ledbetter, vice president of Vino Farms.
📩 Email Us YOUR Story: Siyamak@californiainsider.com
👉 Read California News: californiainsi...
*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.
#californiawine #wine #vineyard #wineries #lodi #sonomacounty #napavalley #californiainsider #californianews #california
--------------------
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Watch our Documentary "Leaving California" at leavingcamovie...
--------------------
🟡 Sign up for our newsletter: californiainsi...
💟 Support us: donorbox.org/c...
📌 Got a story to share? Email us Siyamak@californiainsider.com
⭕ Join CA Insider newsletter: bit.ly/Cainsidernews
Price is what’s killing the California wine market. My favorite winery has gone from $25 a bottle to $80 in ten years. This is very common. I recently purchased a French Rhône for $23 that was as good as the $100 American. Guess which one I’ll buy.
Working people cannot afford $40+ bottles of wine. So we haven’t developed a taste for wine. Period.
Yep because tge richer people have left California tget aren't going to spend extra money to ship ot ti texas or Florida
When those states have thier own winery
@@Patrickf5087you literally have to override spell-check to spell those words wrong…?
@@TheFrogfeeder you clearly don't understand modern spell checkers
Spell a word wrong enough tines, and it assumes it's spelled right
And what's worse, it will "correct" it to the misspelled version
What's even worse is that they removed the convenient part of being able to press hold the word to make it "forget" the word
@@Patrickf5087 lol, THATS your argument?? You’ve spelled 3 and 4 letter common words so often that your spell checker now thinks that’s the right way to spell them?? Ooookay
Depending on the wine, $40 can be a bargain. You can buy good years and keep them in your closet. Did that and I can see the retail prices go up. Break them out for special occasions.
When I moved to the town I live in, Washington state not California, there were 14 wineries here. There are now over 200. But they are starting to fail one by one. I think the market is catching up.
Walla Walla
Besides the economy, younger generations are drinking less alcohol stats show.
Right, and they prefer bubbly white claw drinks if they do imbibe.
You drink wine when you are relaxed. The younger generations are too busy playing video games to drink alcohol.
That's good news.
Yes.. and they drink, a lot more coke from colombia😅
@@juanrgarcia5837 apparently weed too
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?
Oh yes. I remember the days I would drive thru Napa and get a free glass of wine at almost every winery.
_Very different from today, where you get charged for everything. And you pay MORE for that same bottle than the price at your local store. Complete ripoff!_
@@molassescricket6663 best explanation so far, thanks. A shame, but it makes sense this downturn would happen.
@@toothlessseer3153 CA Wine Industry: Wah !!! Wah !!! Wah !!! Wah !!! Wah !!! ( 😂😂😂 )
@@denisceballos9745 Right? And now they’re complaining?
Way back 50 years ago California wines would lobby the Fed govt to make sure a certain percentage of California grape pulp had to be in wine produced for New York State and other Eastern states, They would haul it across the US to be blended into eastern wines so Cal vintners would make alot of money doing that. Naples Ny for instance has had wineries for a long time , - they had Widmers for years and now Hazlitts and as the industry grew in eastern US the wineries were asking why do we have to add Cal grape pulp to our wines, we want our own pure wines. And they began to lobby in Washington and I believe the outcome was that eastern wines were not required to have Cal pulp so that may have hurt the industry also as it grew in California
Overall, demand is plummeting
And Gavin makes it so expensive and difficult to just exist in business that they all implode... down to a damn burger.
He is today's equivalent to "Boss" on Fantasy Island... "Smiles everyone... Smiles"
Not here in Italy, we make what we can sell to local people, we live a simple life. We do not all want to become millionaires. Life is about living.
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…
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.
This is good news as finally it gives our ground water a chance to recover from greedy large growers we have been fighting for the last few decades
@@concernedrn2844 Small farms like mine may not survive because we don`t have the deep pockets like the large corporate farms. You don`t seem to care about all the people that depend on these farms. Where I farm our water table was coming up until the state decided it was more important to protect the delta smelt over the farms.
Water will continue to be an issue in California’s Central Valley, agriculture is important to Central Valley communities however, agriculture consumes 80% of California’s water, yet agriculture accounts for less than 3% of California’s GDP and for those unaware, California is now the 4th largest economy in the WORLD. California is famous for some of its agriculture, wine, nuts , artichokes, olives and these crops and others should continue but by far the crop that is responsible for the largest consumption of water is alfalfa, which goes to feed cows, you might say California agriculture does not have a water problem , it has a cow problem. Luckily, precision fermentation will soon take the place of California’s cow problem.
@@LawrenceLudy, and no one seems concerned about the “cheap imported” juice/wine that is “exporting” foreign irrigation water to the US. 😉
@@LawrenceLudy Oh I do? I just don't support waste and alcohol makers. What do you grow? Do you use pesticides? Do you implement permaculture? Rain water catchment? Water conservation techniques?
I’m willing to bet that Nancy’s and Gavin’s vineyards “somehow” aren’t feeling this situation
I wonder if they do or not. Perhaps they are there for money laundering.
"What is jealousy but a reflection of your own failures? - Michael Connelly, in "The Last Coyote"
@@gillesblanchard1699well you are obviously a supporter of the California policies, please give us your take on what’s going on in once beautiful state
@@gillesblanchard1699 Jealousy? How the hell do you know? Aren't you quick to judge?
nancy's still alive, dang. that medusa
This State Govt. has make it so expensive to live in CA that the average family can't afford CA wine , from the cost of our utilities , the cost of gas , the cost of food , Insurance , tax's , and on and on the middle class is tapped out !
Industries are collapsing and no one realizes it, our country is going into major depression.
A culture that affords wine is gross IMO.
@@starfleetcommander Really? Poverty is the goal? That was easy.
Yeah I've heard same every month since 2010 with equal likelihood.
Yes and this industry is a perfect example of the collapse
Equal Hay @@Mrbfgray
U know what equal sharing of electrical power supply is yes?
Ur cells run on Voltage yes?
What's ur recording speed profile
Are U gifting electrons or sucking on electrical power
Knowing One from the other is knowing it in the presence of an Apex Aai W predator torture chamber Victim victimizer QI coded software engineering experiment that spread to 2 other Matrices that is an infection of neurological delay Mobius strips Hive Mind Cybernetic Group Think Thought police Robo Cops
Go watch Minority Report with Tom Cruz
They spilled the beans
Let the cat out of the bag
Or opened Pandoras Box
Now all the chaos generators are running loose on the planet
It was released and got out of the exclusion zone and became a hazardous radiological biological environment B cuz Parasitic plasma waves can write it's demon seed codings transfers into ur cellular bio neural network coded circuitry phasing speed and the next thing U know U lost ur original memories of ur TRURE Solar Rishi Spiritual coded identity of divine born mathematical eternal life coded temples
Parasites communication codes communicating with each other and looking for food to siphon electrified power supply to power their Nucleotides otherwise they don't exist
The adrenochrome factories network
Does that ring a Taco Bell pepper 🫑
They don't wanna listen to the Borgha Matrix Quarantine TRUTH even though it's in their face everyday cuz all U gotta do is visit any typical Courtroom and watch them argue all day about victims and victimizer software experiment
The amount of tyme and electrical power they spend all their time and energy arguing over everything
The tennis court needs 2 opponents
Electrical power and electrical power playing a game
Winners and losers of numbers
If U wanna C the Borgha Matrix Quarantine Victim victimizer on full display go watch an old FOX NEWS video when Bill O' Reilly was the #1 Hit of subscribers giving their electrical attention to another Walter Winchell Gossip water column never center rod of vertical Spinal wave center endocrine disruptors than go C this video
FOX NEWS
Attack on Killing Reagan
George Will a famous right wing electric foot pedal and the left foot magnetic sound amplifier were going at each other arguing about credibility over what's TRUE and NOT TRUE
That's the Borgha Matrix Quarantine
They don't know what's TRUE
U know why ?
Their telephone line went dead light Intelligence battery operated slaves to OBEY the ABUSER and refuse to accept responsibility and accountability for telling me absolute TRUTH which is eternal absolute pure love on Fire to Create God source worlds NOT Artificial cloned life forms worlds
They don't know the difference anymore
They have been lieing about everything for so long they can't keep track of them to clean up their act and Spiritual house cleaning to restore full spectrum sensing capacitor levels of phasing speed Vacuum PSI coded Neutrinos naturally gifting electrons to experience God source Krystal River Spiral Spiritual mathematical structural engineering integrity organization of planetary memory driven mathematical elemental Union square root of 2 and inverse square root of 2 becomes One Tetrahydrolase fused with Helium to experience being One with God source worlds
That's Basic molecular covalent bonded elemental Union command line function authorization to manifest pure internal eternal absolute love on Fire to Create worlds born out of the Silver and gold mated Reuche Grand Creator Spirit Honor
Mu ah VA 💋 🌈 Aurora's
Just like the cannabis industry in California they forgot the basic law of supply and demand. Oversupply caused the price to plummet.
Oregon even more so.
Yeah, but they still are overpriced. Good wine and weed!
Almost as if the death of the cannabis black market caused some abated farms to pivot to grapes to add to the supply..while the demand as you said just isn't there
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...'.
@@ww2remembered983 spot on!
400,000 tons unpicked? How much water was wasted?
Fair question, but... Grapes utilize very little water compared to most crops. Also, the demand that was change very recently based off of the US government providing subsidies to large corporate wineries to import foreign bulk wine, undercutting the US Growers that used to sell the wine to these big corporations. Most of my fellow Growers didn't have time to pivot. We couldn't grow enough 4 years ago and now all the sudden we don't have a demand for hardly any and this is largely due to the incentivization of foreign bulk wine. If you spent $10,000 an acre minimum developing a Vineyard and had been selling that fruit to wineries your whole life and then all of the sudden they decided they didn't want to buy it anymore because they had cheap foreign wine from Spain and Chile that your own government was pushing on them, don't you think we have a little bit of a right to be pissed?
@@FarmerDan209 $20K to $25 per acre to develop a vineyard plus you need to purchase the land
Not as much as The State Wastes with their “First Flush” water program…
@@FarmerDan209 Yes, you farmers have every right to be pissed and the public has a responsibility to stand behind you when you decide it is time to protest these ruinous import policies.
@@FarmerDan209Also, consumers have a right to be pissed when we spend on California wines and they are not the quality we’ve come to expect (probably because they’ve blended CA wine with the cheaper import wines but how would we ever know?) - last month I dumped two bottles of Paso Robles wine down the drain. They were on sale for $12 and $18 so while I didn’t expect to be blown away, I did expect decent table wine.
Open up the tasting rooms again. Napa has no tourists. In the 80s and 90s you could winery hop and buy bottles on your road trip. Now you must pay $100 to sit in an empty tasting room. There’s no energy and it isn’t fun anymore.
Exactly I'm not gonna pay money to sample a product that I would buy if I enjoy it. I can't think of any other industry that suckers people into paying for their marketing.
Well said.
“It’s not fun anymore” describes the impact of financial engineering and over the top regulations.
But yes, duty draw back was a way for the big guys to crush the competition. Worked beautifully!
Who wants to visit California? It's all about agendas, riots, and radicalism, and no one wants to spend their money on that. No one even wants to live there. Other than the homeless and the rich When I was a kid, we used to drive to visit California. Me? I wouldn't take my family there. Just my perspective.
I have visited some, also a champagne visiting room. It was depressing. My spouse that the same thing that it used to be more fun and welcoming.
@bennyhogan6326 Exactly my friends and I visited Napa Valley for a weekend. While our trip was amazing and I mean the best trip ever! It was so expensive! We could visit multiple tropical destinations for 7 days for the amount we spent in 3 days. We would love you to return, but we just can't.
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. When it came up to extend the labeling law to wines they fought it bc a lot additives and sugars are added to California wines. In short is not as simple as regulations mind you 04 was the bush administration that enacted this import waver laws.
The hyper rich tech guys, Texas developers, egomaniacs just keep planting. Drumright, DiCesaria, Ciminelli, Cervantes and Gallo just won't stop planting. All in Napa County. It's not over regulation it's ego. Pure selfie opportunity ego.
Go to Lodi. Completely different price to Quality ratio.
@@johnmcnamara9728 agreed! So many wines are so expensive to buy in Napa and many of those are big jammy reds with higher alcohol content. Italian wines, for example, with more complexity and subtlety for a fraction of the price is much more palatable. Napa in the seventies created more European style wine but they got away from it as there was a certain reviewer who loved bigger ripe fruited reds?
@johnmcnamara9728 If you want to drink chilled pink wine you should try white zin, which is competitively priced with that Greek rose--people love that and it's made in CA.
When will prices drop? I cringe when I look at restaurant menus and see them selling pedestrian wine for $18 to $30 and often much more for a glass. It’s ridiculously overpriced.
Yep, most people I know just won't spend half the price of a dinner entree for a single glass of wine. Simply not worth it.
Good question! My contention as a winemaker and grower is that the prices will drop when the you don't have cheap foreign wine being subsidized (and no taxes on them) by the US Taxpayer being imported to undercut the US grower. Also, the cost of fuel has caused massive increase in packaging materials (glass, corks, labels, shipping, etc).
Restaurant pricing is another issue in and of itself. For restaurants, alcohol is by far the biggest margin item on the menu. They typically earn tiny margins on food. They price wine bottles at 3-5x the retail price. With costs of food, labor, rent, and energy costs high for restaurants and less people eating out, those restaurant wine prices will be ridiculous.
Yes, there has been so much money-printing. The inflation has been horrendous.
How about grow some food? Alcohol is a luxury you don't need.
Exactly. It may be a large learning curve, but we need more beef growers on regenerative land. Surely these vineyard soils are very good.
@@carolynoconnor8567 More beef in California ? Too water intensive . They should just take over the tequila market . Sorry MX . We'll call it just " Agave " so you don't sue us
I thought grapes were food? I guess I got that wrong.
@@r2dad282 Not a popular one I guess. They just let it rot on the vines.
@@AAWGASHTADSnot at all, just the opposite,read-Allen Savory. Grazing livestock helps to reduce water stress.
Too bad, so sad. Before the wineries came along, all sorts of essential crops and livestock were raised in these CA regions.
@@aiastelamonian6868 yeah, at the end of the day, this isn't Europe & you can't eat wine grapes (taste nasty) & more productive crops can be grown in that soil & personally I'm tired of all the government subsides going out to industries, farmers & every one but the average tax payer. That's the reason we're so far in debt today & inflation is through the roof but farmers & ranchers are more important than the EV industry & AI.
@@scrappy836548 Farmers and ranchers are more important than the EV industry and AI. No one needs an EV or AI, but everyone needs food.
@@scrappy836548 Farmers and ranchers get a tiny amount of subsidies if any at all compared to the EV and AI market place. Let alone what massive corporations receive annually.. And essential crops and livestock are grown in these regions but sadly anymore raising food crops can be much harder to turn a profit on compared to growing other things like wine grapes. Many American seem to not understand how things work these days
Precisely. MONO CULTURE is a recipe for disaster.
@@scrappy836548Inflation ISN'T THROUGH THE ROOF. Consider educating yourself.
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.
Thats an effect ot minimum wage laws,
Let ask you us Newsomes winery doing okay while everyone else's suffering
I saw how expensive it is to grow the grapes and make the wine. Anything from overseas that you buy in a store is not the same as buying directly from the vineyard. Good tasting wine will ALWAYS be more than $30 a bottle! California’s taxes and BS doesn’t help.
@@ruthdella37 respectfully disagree. A $40 bottle at the winery here in SoCal will typically not beat a $15-20 bottle at the store. A $40 bottle here at the winery is not even in the same league as a cheap French wine. Not to involve my personal life here but I spend a lot of time at wineries in Southern California and France. It’s probably just way more expensive to produce wine here. Unfortunately it’s not even that good.
As a side note:
When you think winery in California what do you think of, the vineyard or the experience (facilities). These wineries here in CA are essentially mega mansions. There’s a huge expense for that. In France it’s quite different. Vineyard first, hosting second. Historically, they’re now changing to be more consumer facing.
I agree. $17 is too expensive for a glass of wine. It’s why young people are not drinking it and it’s going out. Better to sell good wine at a cheaper price for people to drink often. Wine brings people together. Nobody should think twice about opening another bottle.
@@francoisl7663you bring a #
Of good points Let us know when you open your wine bar in CA so we can visit it.
Apparently these snobs don't know what raisins are.
Sell some raisin liquor out the back
Yes, they're for amarone!
The number of Marxists in this comment section is hard to believe. You actually believe the wine industry can pivot to raisin production and solve their financial problems?! And 17 people agreed so far?! Lol.
I only had to wait 4 minutes in to hear what I expected to hear. California is one of the most expensive places to do business in the world and we've seen an acceleration of regulations, I'm sure there are many factors affecting the wine industry, but those 2 things will kill a lot of businesses.
More people, more regulations, less resources.
and people get sick of it after awhile.
WTF are you talking about? In that time frame he simply says that his customers are old and that younger adults don't buy the product. That's not the state of California's fault.
@@AndrewTubbiolo He blames The STate every other sentence. as for people not drinking sour $40 buck a bottle wine yeah that's a problem too.
@@TheWhale45 Lack of customer demand is THE problem. The government regulation comes with the government help they get. Of course they never mention that.
GO BACK TO FREE TASTINGS
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.
@@paulgithens635 sound like that’s the explanation that you wanted, not the reality.
@@hehel5163 cool. What wasn't correct?
@@hehel5163what’s your explanation of what’s going on in this shit show state?
yes and many vinery owners are leftest....
The outrageous collective costs imposed by California government?
California Governor Gavin Newsom is one of the owners in the "Plumpjack" California vineyard and winery. It would be interesting to see how this situation is affecting him, if at all.
Yes please answer this
Nance has one too
@TheFrogfeeder Thanks, I forgot about "Princess Pelosi."
Newsome In true democrat grift being "more like Europe" getting covid subsidies loans
Plumpjack will thrive since competition will thin out and Gavin will continue to making sweetheart policies for his affiliate businesses and donors.
Wine vinyards are what the wealthy wife buys to waist the husbands money " dont worry honey its a tax shelter "
Except people don’t get married anymore.
@@unknownperson3649only the losers dont get married. Winners Do.
Exactly. Look at napa county a new winery approved every week!
@@unknownperson3649 😸
You can tell when you see Alpacas and Llamas on the property that the woman gets her expensive way all the time. We know if it was a man's choice it would be a cattle ranch, golf course, shooting range, motocross, race track.
Really? You want us to pay for expensive Wine while I am looking for cheaper Gas and cheaper food? I want to get smashed and I can do that with cheap wine. Lets be real son!
Our laws definitely have to change so that if it says it's American or California or Sonoma it has to be a 100% of that or they can't call it that. The consumers do care.
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.
How’s everyone liking the new world order taking over everything so far?
I'm not sure, they arent really telling us anythjng..
@@kellypawspa That's where you would be wrong
@dornie_donko - An illusion is a distortion of the senses, revealing how the mind typically organizes and interprets sensory information. Illusions can alter our perception of reality,
@@dornie_donko so far, soooo BAD
My sentiments exactly
Does Trader Joe's still have 2 buck Chuck? 🤔 Maybe it's 5 buck Biden now? 😜
They need to build that wall and get white people pickin the grapes . lol
Rebranded into .... Gavin's Dream or "$20.00 Buck Up-chuck." 😂
Beats MAGA puke any day!
One use to be able to buy a bottle of CA wine for $10. Costco are now selling CA wines ranging from $50 to $120 a bottle. It's outside the price range of the average wine drinkers. If you cannot produce a good wine for $10 to $15 a bottle, maybe you should get out of the business.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. BUT when the growers pay farm workers 20 to 30 dollars an hour.......
Unfortunately California labor is extremely expensive. Yes your right trader joes has decent foreign wine for $10 a bottle
The ca wines are too expensive
@@eugenebaeexactly true
Costco is a shit thief company. Stop buying there
Trader Joe’s 2 buck Chuck anyone?
saw this coming years ago….theres too much competition. every state has wineries now, and pot is cheaper..Then theres the huge problem of Constellation..
Wine is 20.00 dollars a glass in California. Wine is $3.00 a glass in Italy. It's not the greed of the wineries but the government's greed.
Help us understand how the government's greed effects wine pricing.
So you are saying there is a $17 a glass tax on wine ?
@@johnsutton7445 The $20 glass of wine is driven by restaurants not wineries. Many dinner restaurants make their profit on the back of alcohol, not food.
@@johnsutton7445 plenty of good wine at places like Grocery Outlet for like $10 a bottle
And yet somehow the Italian government provides free healthcare, cheap public transportation, etc. maybe something more at work here…
Absolutely NO subsidies for these rich dabblers! Napa is full of posers and self promoters. Not one dime for these people.
Lodi started ripping up some of the most wonderful vines I have ever tasted in my entire life. It just doesn’t make sense.
"It just doesn't make sense" -> it was just explained to you.
@@muzakaz it doesn’t make sense to rip up the best vines. I don’t care about the explanation. God bless your little heart.
@@eprofessio Thank you for the heart-care. Economics 101 is simple but tends to evade boomers and all things Blue.
Perhaps it is the winery that doesnt know how to market themselves outside, they are all leftest anyhow they wouldn't know capitalism if it hit them on the head.
@@muzakaz When the Red army gets a govt. grant to build a solution to the Red caused problem i.e....lots of Republicans doing everything possible to ensure the rising cost of land, food, gas etc.
Wonder who all your guests voted for? We have term limits it's called voting. DUHHHH
First one probably votes R, the second one with the painted fingernails votes D.
most people are broke. not necessarily not wine drinkers
No subsidies for the alcoholism industry. He wants us to feel sorry for him, but I don't. Living in wine country they drained our ground water without regard to our community. This is good news as this isn't food, it is alcoholism
The NapaRiver is now dry.......the vineyards are green. The wineries are event centers, the forests are being stripped for more vineyards. Too many wine grapes and destruction of groundwater reservior.
They get subsidies. They just have to cry "Boo hoo" with their hand out and the money comes, like all ag.
Towards the end of the day, wine have become toooo expensive.
beer too
It's always been known to the Napa locals it's easy to make a million dollars in the wine industry in Napa, 'all you have to do is spend 2 million dollars😊
The wine will sell for a price the mkt dictates. Not the price the winerys price them at. So lower the price and sell your inventory.
@@cdawg9149 agreed! Everyone rode the wave for 30 good years of sales and price increases and di3dnt plan for the always inevitable downturn but this time its a double whammy, terrible govt policy causing inflation and overall reduced consumption.
I guess it was more expensive to pay labor to harvest and package than the money spent to grow. That's what happened during the Great Depression.
@@BrianButterworth-s4z Too much product , not enough buyers. Just like the overpriced car and truck mkt. etc. Next wine harvest there could be an under supply of product due to lack of production. Prices could spike when supply cant meet demand. I am not a big wino, but if I was Id be stocking up on a bunch of wine at the depressed prices. BTW I dont see a big drop of prices of wine at Costco or Trader Joes. Some on sale, but maybe Im not paying attn.
Why doesn’t anybody mention the fact that it’s the states democratic policies that are chocking up these and every other business here? They keep talking about “buy locally” but when the regulations make the cost of buying wine so expensive, many people don’t have that option to buy locally.
Well, I guess it is nice to be stupid. Sales of wine and beer are declining because these were a staple for baby boomers. Guess what is happening to that generation? No idea? The younger people are drinking less and less alcohol. Then they do drink, it appears they prefer flavored seltzers, which I see taking over the beer and wine shelves in my local supermarket market. Hopefully you can read this. I tried to keep the words real simple. Oh, I’m a life long Republican. I’m probably older than you, and obviously educated. The down turn has nothing to do with democrats or republicans. It is just a change of old vs new, as well as way over supply of grapes. When I moved to my current house in 2000, there were 2 wineries. Today there are 37 competing for the decline baby boomer population. And we don’t drink as much as we did when we were younger. Many of us stopped drinking all together. Maybe that is why we are living into our 80s.
Is anything good happening in California? Nope
@@Nightjar726 no one here is worried about their pets being eaten
It’s great to see folks leaving CA. Makes it nicer for the folks that are staying.
@Nightjar726 What an ignorant, doltish comment! California: the world's 5th largest economy; an agriculture industry of over $54 Billion in 2023; the epicenter of nearly every "industry of the future"; biotechnology, nanotechnology, aerospace, huge developments in plant genetics (UC David), medical devices, automation developments of all kinds, too many other areas of commercial leadership to even list; and, just a few days back, USN&WR listed 2 of the top 10 US universities as being from California (and, of public universities, #1 and #2 again went to UCLA and UC Berkeley). Your bile and stupidity obscures the facts.
@@flat5sixflat5six26 😂 They’ll tax you more. Because California is deficit. Plus you have a lot of people collecting money. We moved out of California and 1600 mortgage is not bad.
Excess capacity.
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 also wonder how much of it also has to do with COVID, the shut down of restaurants permanently, California is not reporting on that, along with the world economy in general is in the toilet along with the crappy monetary policy of this admin. IT is also liberal governance that is creating a lot of the problem!
Thank you for mentioning that!! Gavin Newsom's pandemic "response" destroyed a lot of lives and businesses. I moved out of state bc of him.
@@kathybrady4033 So did i, i left almost 2yrs ago.
20 something dollar's a bottle in America ; yet in Europe 2 to 10 ? 🤬 !
@@jamestregler1584 they pay more for gasoline.
Subsidized by the taxpayer. So more than 2 to 10 in reality.
I had a vineyard for 13 years. I finally pulled out the vines in 2013 and sold the metal stakes. It was a ton of work, unreliable winemakers not paying, and especially UC Davis over promoting new vineyard plantings.
Good timing.
Depends on what you planted and where. Napa cab, Sonoma and Willamette pinot still get good prices despite the free fall in other AVAs.
The last chap is easily the most knowledgeable.
I'd buy a few bottles if it could be divulged what wineries use his fruit in addition to Avivo, there should be others
When you paint your nails people are not going to take you seriously.
Not a good look for a supposed professional.
That aging hipster look isn't doing much to help the branding of California wine either
Yeah, guys who paint their nails put me off a little.
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. Grocery store margins are razor thin, which is why many are leaving California (ie:regulations and also the Proposition 47 lunacy)
I absolutely love Lodi, Lodi Wines and Lodi Olive Oils, but some folks need to step outside the bubble.
So, fascism, communism, or socialism is the answer?? Whoops, sorry to burst your bubble.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, better known as the 2018 Farm Bill, signed into law in late December 2018, removed “hemp” - defined[1] as cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) and derivatives of cannabis with “extremely low concentrations of the psychoactive compound delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol”[2] (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.
No, it will contaminate the cannabis business with pollen. Some places make it illegal to grow hemp for that reason. Grow that stuff in Kansas or something.
We are changing to hemp but the market for hemp clothes is so small that when scaling up, we impacted that market as well, the profit went backward
There is a glut of wine in the world!
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)_
And they walk more. People don't just sit all day they get up and move around like walking to lunch for example.
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.
Crazy rich white men just keep planting. Simple as that really rich guys want a vineyard and a winery for their TH-cam channel and their Instagram photo op. It ain't farming its fame.
Govt caused inflation has caused the price of wine, as well as every product, to increase in price. People of all adult ages would drink wine if the price were right. It's not because 'young people are not drinking wine'. That's not the reason. Also, if there is truly an oversupply of wine, the industry would lower their prices to move the product. Some money comes in is better than no money coming in.
Inflation has wiped out descresenary spending.
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
This is nothing compared to what Trump did to our agriculture industry. He allowed China to take over the soy bean growing and he had to bail out farmer's to the tune of billions of our tax dollars. The Dems have done nothing as stupid as that. But his brainwashed cult could care less, he can do no wrong in theri hoodwinked eyes.
Give California politicians enough time, and they will ruin any industry…. Restaurants and businesses are closing all over California, especially in expensive areas like the Bay Area.
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
If Democrats win at rhe next election, we'll know Californians are thoroughly brainwashed. Be sure to vote. Vote early. Take a neighbor. Vote red like our finest wine.
@@lashurediscussion4970 so (almost) accurate.
Except we are not voting for the politicians ruining KommieFornia; but rather, it’s the truckloads of unsigned/undated pre-printed mail in ballots and electronic voting machines that are keeping them in office and in power.
Crickets from our media as usual.. Im sure GrusomNewsom winery r doing just fine tho..
make grape kombutcha. people want this
Well when PEOPLE DON'T HAVE JOB'S ? They stop buying certain Thing's ! How can people buy something , when thier are no JOB'S ! I THINK YOUR GOVERNOR AND THE REST OF YOUR STATE GOVERNMENT NEED'S TOO GO BY BY ! BUT THAT MEANS YOU NEED TOO " VOTE " 😮
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.
I think you need open your eyes, California economy is in the toilet due to bad liberal policies.....
Beer sales are down too, all alcohol sku's are down
I'm sure Gavin Newsome's interests will be covered by the taxpayer - somehow. Politicians don't lose money.
Drinking alcohol is decreasing overall. It is good to stay healthy and be safe on the roads.
Theres your answer to why the free wine tasteing and winnery partys went away.
500 gallons of water to make 1 gallon of wine,while your neighbors who don’t have vineyards have to go deeper on their wells to just live because of the neighbors vineyards sucking down the aquifer…Adios and good riddance to the wineries…
"Community first".... oh, like "America first" ............. YOU GET WHAT YOU VOTE FOR
No, the voters don’t get what they vote for when the vote counters determine elections
Unfortunately, in KommieFornia, we get what it he truckloads of unsigned/undated pre-printed mail in ballots and electronic voting machines vote for.
The problem with California Wine is that these experts paint their nails black and think that as a man, that works. Next time, get a farmer that does not prioritize painting his nails in politics. Get a farmer that is 60 or 70 years old without being a Master Sommelier with 7 worthless degrees.
It's a free market country. If you can't sell grapes then grow something else.
suggestion please?
agree.. but it ain't as simple as one might think. costs a shit.ton
Have a neighbor who needs to pull out some almonds
Doesn't have the $ to pay to the remove them as almond prices have been crap for a few years and property tax and insurance ain't getting any cheaper. Most.of which is traceable to bad economic policies during covid by Biden .
As more young people use Cannabis, all alcohol use drops. Beer, wine and high proof. Also hard drug use drops. Also tobacco use drops. All a good thing to avoid bad drugs.
Every FAD fades with time's passage. Realtors count on that as do others selling stuff. Satiation has set in for CA wines.
boomers getting to old to drink and leaving us
Until 1956, it was a common practice in France to serve wine to schoolchildren, including those under 14 years old, during lunchtime.
Except in the Netherlands. Children there prefer whiskey.
Pot is much cheaper buzz.
And doesn't kill people who drink and drive.
"cheaper buzz."
I sometimes brew alcohol at home.
Started with wine kits and beer kits.
Made a few fruit wines, ciders and meads from locally sourced ingredients.
Now I grow my own herb.
I'm so, so cheap.
Buzz, buzz.
🙂
New world (esp. California) wines tend to be too alcoholic and too sweet for my taste. In general, California wines also are more expensive than those from other regions in the world. Sadly it sucks to do ANY business in California.
$5 buck Chuck at Trader Joe’s was the biggest blessing to the wine industry. They might consider expanding their selections for that price point.
lol in 2008 we called it $2 buck chuck
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.
Biden/Harris/Gavin economic plan! 🤦🏼🤦🏼🤦🏼
Nope. Wealthy scammer's like Trump ruin everything for the non wealthy like you. The ignorant non wealthy are their marks for their never ending scamming. Just ask his cult, they'll tell you he's a God to them!
With the middle ones pronouns of he/she 😂 that's why she was a popular "Prostituter" as Tim the putz Waltz called her/him 😂
@@TRONABORON Ignorance is not bliss.
@@really2345For you it is
Thank you Gavin Newsom for taxing the crap out of businesses in California and ruining one of our trademark industries!!
The wine industry isn't tax the crap out of. All their cost of production is fully tax deductible at both State and federal levels. They're only taxed on profits. Of all their problems, taxes are the least of it
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...
In 1977, I normally paid $12 for a Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon bottle anywhere in the San Francisco Bay Area.
A new car was $5k in 77
Young and elderly are consuming marijuana!! What a sad world we have become.
"consuming marijuana!!" "sad ".
As with alcohol mankind has consumed cannabis for thousands of years.
Would please explain why you believe this is sad.
Are you just sad that other people are living THEIR OWN LIVES?
Think globally, drink locally. Support CA wineries.
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.
R U kidding me? We are juicers waiting 4 the grapes, not alcohol. Give us the freakin grapes!!!
Nothing like the socialist free loading juicers looking for another freebie.hand out.
Want the grapes. Make and offer.
If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me
Exactly what I said
But if he did much turning water into wine, the growers would be furious
30 years in wine business we saw this decline in 2018 we haven’t seen the peak yet.
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.
Free grapes and a company who has invested millions in a high tech operation still can’t be profitable. Sounds like the housing situation where you give people a 0% interest rate and it is still not affordable.
wines prices have escalated to a cheap bottle at 20 dollars.
hardly a beverage of occasional consumption
Yes a vineyard in the Sierras opened their property up to pick grapes last year. I made the most amazing petit sirah jelly thanks to them ! Also, not as many rice fields these days.. not good.
Cost of production is too high in California, resulting in over priced wine, coupled w Bidenomics = most people can't afford necessities
Thanks for the always excellent content! Stuart Spencer has been an incredible asset to Lodi and the California Wine Industry more broadly; I really appreciate you having an industry insider of his caliber on to share the dreadful state of affairs plaguing us currently.
they are a scam. mostly speculation. Incredible prices and no real passion and boring taste.
They are also priced by how "popular" the winery or distrbuter are. If everyone KNOWS
or LIKES "@saa82vik," your wine will sell well and at whatever you price it. If NO ONE
knows me or does not like me, my wines will not sell much or at all. It's all one big
superficial game - you know... like Hollywood movie stars... AND movies, I might add.
I don't think the federal government is subsidizing foreign wine. Its sounds like California can't make wine as cheaply is other nations.
The solution is not subsidies, bailouts or tariffs. The solution is lowering minimum wage, lowering taxes, and reducing regulation.
Want to make business challenging? Make it impossible to hire affordable labor, introduce regulations that cost time and money, and create subsidies that make businesses dependent on government assistance.
we see it In the bee industry here in California also
You mean insisting on a MONO CULTURE isn't quite working out? Huh! Well 'who knew'.
What can we help preciscly?? What about your neighbor in silicon valley , can hey help?
I don't have wine money 🤑🇺🇲
To greedy. Supply and demand. To much supply no demand . Not rocket science
Not enough pompous rich people anymore…entire industries are failing because they hitched their horse to the boomers …Harley learning that lesson too