Who Will Pick America's Wine Grapes?

When harvest came last fall, many Napa and Sonoma vintners weren’t sure who was going to pick the grapes. America’s labor crunch is being felt across California’s $43.6 billion wine industry. Fires and other weather challenges have shrunk grape-picking windows and pandemic travel restrictions have kept away seasonal workers from Latin America. But all these challenges have merely exacerbated a chronic labor problem that has been worsening for more than a decade: Workers are leaving the wine industry for good.

- By Kristen Bieler

“Vineyard work is extremely difficult and people have a lot of options today,” said Bob Torkelson, president and COO of Trinchero Family Estates, one of California’s largest wine companies, farming more than 10,000 acres of vines. “We’ve seen farm workers leave for jobs in the service industry, construction and at huge delivery centers like Amazon.” Winegrowers are being forced to adapt.

Amelia Ceja, president of Ceja Vineyards in California’s Carneros appellation, has watched the evolution play out from both worker and producer perspectives. Born in Jalisco, Mexico, Ceja emigrated in 1967 to join her father, a farmworker in Napa Valley. She founded Ceja Vineyards in 1999 and has become an advocate for the fair treatment of farm workers. “Our parents’ generation were all agricultural workers in Mexico and they loved working the land, but the next generation does not want to do it,” she said. “It’s back-breaking work, I know; I spent years planting and pruning vines.”