Feb 11, 2020

California’s 2019 grape crush down 9%

California crushed about 9% fewer winegrapes than the previous years, according to a preliminary report released by the California field office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Association on Feb. 10.

The 2019 crush totaled 4,085,772 tons, down 9.3% from the 2018 crush of 4,506,010 tons. The last time the crush was lower was in 2015.

Red wine varieties in 2019 accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2,135,112 tons, down 12.8% from 2018, according to the release. The 2019 white wine variety crush totaled 1,755,141 tons, down 4.3% from 2018. Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 61,051, down 26% from 2018, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 134,468 down 5.6% from 2018.

The 2019 average price of all varieties was $790.43, down 5% from 2018, according to the release. Average prices for the 2019 crop by type were as follows: red wine grapes, $990.07, down 2.9% from 2018; white wine grapes, $580.66, down 8.6% from 2018; table grapes, $262.60, up 36.8%; and raisin grapes, $244.88, down 19%.

In 2019, Chardonnay continued to account for the largest percentage of the total crush volume with 15.6%, according to the release. Cabernet Sauvignon accounted for the second leading percentage of crush with 14.1%. Thompson Seedless, the leading raisin grape variety crushed for 2019, held only 1.1% of the total crush.

District 13, (Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Avenue (Avenue 192)), had the largest share of the State’s crush, at 1,307,233 tons, according to the release. The average price per ton in District 13 was $300.60.

Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) received the highest average price of $5,797.07 per ton, up 3.9% from 2018, according to the release. District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) received the second-highest return of $2,823.67, up 0.2% from 2018. The 2019 Chardonnay price of $899.83 was down 7.3% from 2018, and the Cabernet Sauvignon price of $1,720.61 was up 2.2% from 2018. The 2019 average price for Zinfandel was $564.74, down 5.8% from 2018, while the French Colombard average price was down 5% from 2018 at $275.89 per ton.

The entire Grape Crush Report is available online at www.nass.usda.gov/ca. For more information about the survey, visit https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/mkt/grapecrush.

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Association (NASS) is the federal statistical agency responsible for producing official data about U.S. agriculture and is committed to providing timely, accurate and useful statistics in service to U.S. agriculture.