tl;dr: California wine grape growers have pulled roughly 25% of the state's vineyards out of production as U.S. wine sales fell 23% from 2020 to 2025, leaving about half of this year's crop without buyer contracts. The decline is driven by aging baby boomers, younger consumers drinking less, and competition from craft beer, spirits, canned cocktails, and cannabis, with global consumption also down 14% since 2018. U.S. producers can't offload excess inventory abroad due to higher production costs than competitors like Argentina and Australia.