California wine growers are struggling to sell grapes as U.S. wine sales have fallen more than 20% over five years, forcing farmers to harvest at a loss, leave fruit on the vines or replace vineyards with almonds, walnuts, pistachios and olives. Growers have removed or stopped actively farming roughly 25% of the state’s vineyard acreage since the pandemic peak, yet Allied Grape Growers says supply still exceeds demand. The decline has been driven by younger consumers drinking less alcohol, aging baby boomers, competition from beer, spirits, canned cocktails and cannabis, tariffs and weaker global consumption. The industry hopes the market will soon bottom out while growers absorb losses and reassess which consumers they can serve.