Three-buck chuck devotees finally have a chance to refine their oenological palate while staying in their preferred price range thanks to California’s wine crisis. Struggling with a historic glut amid slumping demand, the state’s winemakers are offloading fine wines to retailers like Costco that sell them under private labels at steep discounts, the Los Angeles Times reported recently.
For example, one premium cab sav bottle that could typically fetch up to $85 is now going for $9.99 at a national grocery chain, according to its wine buyer.
The great winecession
The state’s $84 billion wine industry is battered as national sales fell to a 20-year low last year, which experts attribute to young people drinking less and many boomers ageing out of the habit of having a bottle of red with dinner. Plus, Canada’s ongoing boycott of US booze cost California’s winemakers $357 million last year, according to the Wine Institute.
This year might be even worse:
About half of California’s grape harvest was contracted for sale as picking season began this summer, compared with 70-80% in a normal year.Several large wineries have gone bankrupt in recent months and California vintners are destroying unneeded vines.
Some farmers are ditching grapes…for other crops like pistachios, almonds, and olives. Others are pivoting to growing agave, with plans to distill it into tequila-inspired liquor. While tequila has faced resilient demand and some California agave growers believe the US version will take off, experts caution that it’s a risky bet on a plant that takes five years to ripen.—SK
