LODI, Calif. — Dark clouds loom over this year's grape-growing season at JW Moore Vineyards in Lodi. As one of California's highest-grossing commodities, winegrapes are essential to the state's economy, but right now, there’s trouble in the market.
"We're throwing money on the ground," said vineyard operations manager Garret Schaefer.
Schaefer has been in the industry for 13 years. He says it was a tough but familiar decision to rip out 10 acres of cabernet grapes recently.
"In the last couple of seasons, currently, we're up to 50 acres that have come out of the ground," said Schaefer. "We're possibly going to pull another 15 out."
The decision to ditch the vines leaves behind just dirt and mangled metal stakes on fallowed land on Schaefer's 130-year-old vineyard.
"The farmer wears a lot of hats these days," said Schaefer. "Right now we're bringing in a lot of wine from countries cheaper than we can farm the grapes and so it makes it really tough to compete with those types of prices."
Schaefer also says increasing government regulations, like requiring sustainable certifications, are keeping production costs high while grape prices haven't increased in decades.
"Now we're dealing with like air quality issues with the air resources board when we do pull out a vineyard, you're no longer allowed to open-air burn," said Schaefer. "So that price has increased, you know, three times."
Some wineries Schaefer sells to require new laborious methods of growing
"They want us to take all these shoots off which includes the grapes with it," said Schaefer. "So we're reducing the number of shoots for quality but in a sense, we're spending money to lose money. Every time you do this, you're basically throwing a potential bunch of grapes on the ground."
It's not just Schaefer's vineyard struggling. Scenes of vines completely ripped out of the ground and left in large piles are becoming hard to miss when driving around Lodi.
The Lodi Winegrape Commission represents nearly 750 winegrape growers in the region which produce more than 20% of the state's wine.
Stuart Spencer, the commission's executive director, says an estimated 7,000 of the 90,000 acres of local vines have been pulled out so far this year.
"This is going to be a challenging year for both growers and vendors," said Spencer. "For those of us that have been in the business a long time, we've seen all sorts of downcycles and we've seen all sorts of upcycles. This one is particularly challenging."
USDA data shows there are now 15,000 fewer acres of winegrapes being grown statewide than before the pandemic. Spencer, like Schaefer, says it's due to cheap, foreign wine.
He estimates as many as 400,000 tons of California’s grapes were left on the vine last harvest while the same number was imported into the state.
"That is undercutting the California growers here and keeping the price and demand down for Lodi and California-grown grapes," said Spencer. "There are lots of other industries that benefit from the success and growth of California wine and they are all going to be struggling as we struggle too."
It's why he's encouraging wine drinkers to read the fine print.
"It says chardonnay, but when you look very carefully at the packaging, it says 'American' chardonnay," said Spencer while holding a box of wine. "And that can include 25% Chilean or Australian chardonnay."
Back on Schaefer's family-owned vineyard, he's hoping you'll pick the local bottle too, to keep cultivating tradition in San Joaquin County.
"It's very peaceful, it's very relaxing," said Schaefer. "I've always said, some of the best ideas and thinking I've ever done is on a tractor as I'm driving through a field... I hope that the family can keep doing this for another 100 years."
Watch more from ABC10: Why 2023 was one of the most challenging for Lodi wine in recent memory
