California SHAKEDOWN

Over-optimistic California wine-growers have brought about an expansion of vineyard area that has implications beyond fruit being left to rot on the vine and unwanted volumes of wine languishing in tanks. What happens next?

- KATE NOWELL-SMITH

Wine is a rarity – a splendid, value-added substance built upon an agricultural commodity. There is also, for the time being, far too much of it.

The 2024 growing season in California, my 17th vintage making wine, was gorgeous. Plentiful winter rain set the vines up for success. The summer then brought warm, dry days with cool nights – perfect for even ripening. Relatively few heat spells and low disease pressure meant that there was no rush to pick. As the associate winemaker at Sonoma’s Brick and Mortar, I was working with pristine fruit brought in at its peak.

However, while cycling around Sonoma County months later, I saw row upon row of unharvested grapes. Fruit was left to rot on the vine in some of the state’s most prestigious appellations. For the 2024 harvest, there was no hiding in plain sight.

Desperate times

The custom crush facility that I worked for received calls from growers on an almost daily basis, asking us to vinify their fruit for them and offering all manner of deals. ‘Take half the fruit for yourselves,’ was often the plea. Promises to pay may have been well intentioned, but there are no guarantees. Major wineries have gone bankrupt.

That unspoken-for wine in the tank loses value as the days go by. It will eventually be picked up for a song and blended into one generic bulk wine or another, its identity and integrity lost, any invocations to terroir a hollow joke.

‘Does this not mean amazing prices and plentiful wine for all?’ one could be forgiven for wondering. Sort of, in the short-term, is the answer. However, over time, it also means a hit to quality, vineyards and the environment.

The California wine industry must figure out what it wants to be, and we, fellow wine lovers, should understand the role that we play in crafting the future of wine.