At the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium’s State of the Industry address, Bitter again emphasised the need for large-scale vineyard reductions in California, to better balance supply with market demand.
He explicitly called for more vines to be uprooted in coastal regions, such as Santa Barbara, Lake, Mendocino, and Monterey counties, as well as among Lodi’s Zinfandel plantings.
From the total request for removal, Bitter recommended that 11,300 hectares (ha) should come from the coastal, more premium vineyards, with the most significant recommendation being the removal of 2,800ha of coastal Cabernet Sauvignon.
Steve McIntyre, president of McIntyre Vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands and CEO of Monterey Pacific, managers of 8,500ha of vines in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Napa, and Lake counties, agreed that ‘Cabernet Sauvignon doesn’t work well in Monterey County and needs to be preferentially removed.’
Bitter also recommended a 2,000ha reduction of Pinot Noir vines from Monterey and Santa Barbara counties and a 2,000ha reduction of aged Chardonnay vines from Mendocino, Monterey, and Santa Barbara counties.
Similarly, Bitter recommended a reduction of just under 9,000ha from the interior regions of California, primarily from Lodi. Specific recommendations include 2,800ha of ageing Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon vines and 2,000ha of Zinfandel vines.
‘Where and how that crop [Zinfandel] finds its balance is still to be determined,’ said Stuart Spencer, executive director at the Lodi Winegrape Commission and winemaker at St. Amant Winery in Lodi.
Spencer added, ‘We had a significant planting boom in the late 1990s, and many of those vineyards are now pushing 25-30 years of age and are at the end of their economic threshold.’ The boom came after the airing of a segment on 60 Minutes touting the health benefits of drinking wine in moderation.
Though the recommendations from the Unified Symposium were specific, McIntyre emphasised, ‘Everybody needs to chip in. We’re recommending our clients take out approximately 10% of what they’re currently farming, depending on the age and health of the vineyard.’
Spencer agreed. ‘We have been spending a lot of time in one-on-one meetings with our grower families to help guide them through these decisions.’
He added, ‘We are a community that’s been farming grapes since the 1850s when people first came to California. We have fifth- and sixth-generation grape growers whose identity is tied to that. To be the generation that stops being grape growers is difficult.’
Allied Grape Growers sells wine grapes throughout the state to hundreds of buyers, representing about 400-500 growers in the marketplace.
Their clients account for about 5% of the state’s grape crush. The other 95% of growers will need to make their own decisions, including examining the list of varieties and regions most in need of vineyard and acreage correction and asking the question: Where do I fit into this equation?
Like the Lodi Winegrape Commission, Allied Grape Growers meets with its clients one-on-one to identify vineyards that are most in market jeopardy. These include vineyards without contracts and vineyards growing grapes that have fallen out of favour.
Last year, Bitter primarily addressed Central Valley growers, overall calling for 20,000ha of removals to offset 7,000 newly bearing hectares in 2024, for a net reduction of 12,000ha.
Growers largely complied, with an estimated net reduction of 8,000ha. However, coastal growers fell short of his specific expectations. This year, Bitter directed his message to premium coastal regions, urging them to take action.
However, this is not solely a supply-side issue. Bitter acknowledged that if 20,000 ha were indeed removed last year, it would not have single-handedly corrected the market, as total US wine shipments declined by 4.2% in 2024, according to Wine Business Analytics.
The oversupply of California grapes collides with persistent…
Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/california-vineyards-over-planted-by-more-than-20000-hectares-551040/
