A Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in Napa Valley, with misty mountains in the background. Even Napa Valley, the home of big red wines, saw a 16 percent fall in the size of the red grape harvest in 2024.
California farmers may have left up to 30 percent of their red wine grapes unharvested in 2024 as the state saw its smallest overall grape crush since 2004, and its smallest red grape crush since 1999.
The annual California Grape Crush report was released Monday by the state Department of Food and Agriculture. There’s no way to tease out exactly how many grapes were left on the vine. What is clear is that generally speaking, farmers picked their white grapes, while many red grapes that were uncontracted were left hanging.
“Most of the whites around the state were picked,” said Glenn Proctor, partner for grape brokers The Ciatti Company. “At the end of the year, people were picking whites even though they weren’t picking reds. There were more unpicked grapes than we thought. It was surprising to us.”
The total wine grape crush was just 2.84 million tons, 22.8 percent less than in 2023. The size of the crop was down all over. Napa Valley red grapes were down 16.5 percent by volume; Napa Valley whites were down 15.5 percent.
In many regions, the dichotomy between whites and reds being picked was very obvious. Sonoma County has twice as many red grapes planted as white. Its red-grape harvest (combined with Marin County’s tiny crop) was down 18.3 percent, while its white harvest was down only 8.8 percent.
The difference was even greater in neighboring Mendocino County, which is best known for Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. Mendocino also has about twice as many red grapes as white; its red grape harvest was down 27 percent while its white grape harvest was actually 2.2 percent higher, one of the few such larger crops in the state.
Speculation that 30 percent of red grapes statewide were unharvested is based on acreage. In 1999, the last time California had a red-grape harvest this small, the state had 30 percent less acreage devoted to red-wine grapes. However, grapevines give different sizes of yield every year, so there’s no direct acres-to-crush size comparison. While the calculation may not be exact, the overall trend is clear.
The 2024 vintage was progressing well until a heat spike in October that mostly affected red grapes, as most white grapes were already picked. California’s red grape crush was down 27 percent from 2023, while the white grape crush was down 18 percent. Last year was the smallest white grape crush in California since 2008.
“It was a warm summer and there was a lot of yield taken away by the heat,” said Steve Fredricks, president of Turrentine Brokerage. “Yield per acre was light. But it’s not a bad thing.”
Americans bought less wine in 2024, and wineries and distributors are still struggling with excess inventory. Fredricks said a smaller harvest may not be good for individual growers, but it’s beneficial for the wine industry as a whole.
“Last year’s high yield per acre may have masked how many acres were removed,” Fredricks said. “In ’24, Mother Nature helped out. ‘You’re going to try to get less, we’re going to help you get less.'”
The lowdown A few more statistical highlights from the report:
- White grapes were most desirable from arguably the worst region for them. Region 13, a very hot inland region that includes Fresno and Madera counties, had by far the largest white-grape harvest in the state, down just 3.5 percent from 2023. Red grapes in the region were down 22.1 percent.
- Monterey and neighboring San Benito County saw white grapes down 25.3 percent and red grapes down 33.1 percent.
- The high-end Central Coast, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo Counties (including Paso Robles) fared even worse, with white grapes down 34.2 percent and red grapes down 42.3 percent.
- Lodi, a key source of widely available wines, saw its white harvest drop 23.4 percent and reds drop 25.1 percent.
- Farmers in Kern County, just north of Los Angeles County, experienced a major downturn, with their red-grape harvest down 48.4 percent.
Despite the relative popularity of white grapes, farmers did not see a significant increase in demand. The balance of supply and demand continues to be a challenge in the industry.
“This crop size is reasonably good news,” Fredricks said. “It’s a bummer for the growers in terms of the return. But for the California wine business, this does help us balance out some of the oversupply from the last few years. We still need to find a way to make people buy and drink wine. We can’t fix our problem by reducing supply.”
Source: Wine Searcher
