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.’
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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.
Its 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 ‘headwinds’ facing the wine industry, which include declining wine consumption, shifting demographics, health concerns surrounding alcohol, rising competition from cannabis and other beverages, and wine’s higher per-serving cost.
These industry issues sit within macroeconomic pressures, including inflation, rising interest rates, lower consumer confidence, and the weak dollar.
And unlike other wine-producing nations, US farmers do not receive government support or subsidies for vineyard removals, making the financial decision even more difficult.
Possible impending tariffs on imports could provide relief for domestic producers and strengthen the domestic grape market. Still, their status remains highly uncertain and subject to constant change, as is the current state of governmental policies in the US.
Not discussed at the Unified Symposium is the amount of bulk wine imported from other countries, eventually making its way into bottles (and boxes) of mass-produced wines from domestic producers, labelled with the generic ‘American’ geographical designation, which allows for up to 25% of non-us wine in the blend.
In 2022, this figure was 68 million gallons of foreign bulk wine imported by California producers.
Stuart said, ‘Our largest wineries in California have become the largest importers of inexpensive wine from all corners of the earth, and it’s undermining California grape growers and the communities within which they operate.’
Though the industry looks at Bitter as ‘the supply guy’, the harsh reality is that this is not a supply problem but a demand problem.
‘We’re in a situation where we’re over-planted for the market capacity that we have, and the end-of-the-line result is that some people have to get out of the business,’ said Bitter.
With the long game in focus, ‘We need to address the issues related to the demand side of the business, as we can only correct ourselves into balance for so long.’
