Left on the Vine: What I Learned in Lodi About Where Your Wine Really Comes From
Somewhere in Lodi right now, and countless other vineyards, a family is pulling out vines their grandparents planted. Not because the fruit is bad, and not because they farmed it badly. They're tearing it out because the biggest wine companies in the state stopped buying — and a meaningful share of what those companies bought instead came from vineyards on the other side of the Pacific.
That's the story California wine country has been trying to get the rest of us to hear for more than two years. It deserves a wider audience, because the people paying for it aren't faceless "industry" figures. They're independent growers, their crews, and the small towns that depend on both. And most wine drinkers have no idea that the bottle labeled "American" on their grocery shelf may be helping put them out of business.
Grapes on the vine, tankers at the port
In March 2024, Stuart Spencer of the Lodi Winegrape Commission published a piece that said out loud what growers had been muttering for years: California's largest wineries were importing huge volumes of cheap foreign bulk wine while local fruit went unsold. Citing the Gomberg Fredrikson Report, he wrote that California wineries brought in nearly 68 million gallons of foreign bulk wine in 2022 — roughly equal to 400,000 tons of grapes. In the same breath, he noted that growers had been told something like 400,000 tons of California grapes went unharvested the previous season.
Read that twice. The tonnage left hanging on California vines roughly matched the tonnage imported from overseas.
Spencer also pointed out who was doing the importing. Many of the largest buyers of California grapes were also the largest importers of foreign bulk wine. Growers were being told to rip out acreage to "balance supply with demand" by the same companies whose purchasing decisions were shaping that demand.
One clarification before going further, because it matters when you share this. What's coming in is mostly bulk wine — finished, fermented wine shipped in large containers and bottled here — rather than grape juice. That makes the problem worse, not better. The winemaking itself has been outsourced along with the farming. California loses the grape sale, the crush, the fermentation, and the jobs that go with each.
The numbers keep climbing
The trend didn't ease after Spencer sounded the alarm. It accelerated.
• Mendocino Winegrowers cited roughly 30 million gallons of bulk wine imported in 2024, with its treasurer warning that the state shouldn't be bringing in that much wine while its own industry was on its knees.
• In just the first half of 2025, bulk imports jumped 17% to more than 25 million gallons. Australia led at over 10 million gallons, averaging $2.65 a gallon, followed by New Zealand and Chile.
• For all of 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle reported more than 37 million gallons of imported bulk wine — up 24% from the year before — with about 90% from Australia, Chile, or New Zealand.
Sources count these numbers slightly differently; Jason Haas of Tablas Creek Vineyard, reading a chart Spencer published, put last year's figure closer to 45 million gallons. Every one of them points the same direction: up.
Meanwhile, the people growing grapes here have been losing ground year after year. Spencer's analysis of state crush data found California wineries were buying over 500,000 fewer tons annually from independent growers in 2023 than in 2014. Haas reported that roughly 40,000 acres of California vines — about a tenth of the state's total — came out of the ground in 2025, while the average price paid per ton fell 3.8%.
On the ground, those numbers have faces. Lodi grower Craig Ledbetter told KQED his family has pulled out about a third of its acreage because of weak demand — and that he considers himself lucky, because some clients have taken out nearly all of theirs and left the ground fallow. He blamed the largest wine companies for replacing local fruit with cheaper imports.
Why buy from Australia when your neighbor has grapes?
Because it's cheaper — dramatically so.
The Chronicle, citing Gomberg Fredrikson, put Australian and Chilean bulk wine at the equivalent of $566 per ton in 2023. That's finished wine, ready for bottling. California grapes averaged $1,194 per ton that year, and they still had to be crushed and fermented. A local grower can't win a price war against someone selling the finished product for less than half the cost of the raw fruit.
And a global wine glut keeps foreign prices low. Spencer notes that worldwide oversupply lets wineries buy foreign bulk wine at rock-bottom prices to cut their cost of goods, and that the European Union and its member states provide over €2 billion in wine-sector subsidies. California growers are competing against farmers backed by foreign treasuries.
The tax break that rewards importing
Here's the part that should bother every taxpayer: our own federal government sweetens the deal.
Under a program called duty drawback, importers can get refunds on customs duties, taxes, and fees when they export comparable goods. Growers argue wine gets an unusually generous version. According to the Lodi Winegrape Commission, a winery can recover 99% of the duties, taxes, and fees on imported bulk wine by exporting a matching volume of wine — and the exported wine doesn't have to be the same wine that came in.
Spencer's math makes the incentive plain. On Australian bulk wine at $2.65 a gallon, the excise refund alone is $1.06 a gallon — 99% of the $1.07 federal tax. Even the 2025 tariffs on Australian and Chilean wine (10%) and New Zealand wine (15%) were refundable under the same program, he wrote, and domestic wine has lost 11.2% of its U.S. market share since the drawback rules changed in 2004. The Commission has estimated the government spent more than $204 million over six years effectively subsidizing imported wine, mostly benefiting a handful of large wineries.
Think about what that means. A family farm in San Joaquin County pays its own bills, its own taxes, and its own crew. Its biggest potential customer can buy foreign wine, export something else, and claw back nearly all the tax on the import. That isn't a level playing field. It's a slope, and it runs downhill toward the port.
Labeled "American," made partly elsewhere
If consumers could see what they were buying, the market might sort some of this out on its own. They mostly can't.
Federal rules let a wine carry the "American" appellation as long as at least 75% of it comes from the United States. The rule says nothing about where the other 25% comes from. As California's AB 1585 put it, the "American" label carries no national, continental, or even hemispheric limit on that remaining quarter. Spencer argues much of the imported bulk wine ends up blended and sold under exactly that label.
Compare that with the standards states set for their own names. A wine labeled "California" must come entirely from California grapes, a rule in place since 1942. Washington requires at least 95% Washington grapes to use its name. France and Italy require wine bearing the country's name to come entirely from that country, and the Lodi Commission argues the U.S. is the only major wine-producing nation whose national name can sit on foreign wine.
Spencer walked grocery aisles in Lodi — the heart of California's grape country — and photographed what he found: imported wines under familiar California brand names, often shelved beside their California counterparts, along with "American"-labeled bottlings from major brands, all a short walk from a store banner celebrating local living. To be precise: an "American" label doesn't prove a given bottle contains foreign wine, and no public data shows how much imported wine ends up in American-labeled bottles. That's exactly the point. A shopper who wants to support American farmers has no way to know which bottle does.
Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom made the comparison that sticks: grape juice, table grapes, and jam must be 100% U.S.-grown to be marketed as American-made, she told colleagues, and wine should meet the same bar. If "American" means something on a jar of grape jelly, it should mean at least as much on a bottle of wine.
The fix that passed 67–0 — and still died
California tried to close the loophole in 2026. AB 1585, introduced by Assemblymembers Damon Connolly of San Rafael and Rhodesia Ransom of Stockton, would have required any wine labeled "American" or "United States" and produced, bottled, or sold in California to come entirely from U.S.-grown grapes. It didn't ban imports. It didn't ban blending. It simply asked that the label tell the truth.
The bill was sponsored by the California Association of Winegrape Growers and Family Winemakers of California, and it passed the Assembly without a single "no" vote, 67–0. Growers and supporters sent more than 10,000 letters. Then, on June 23, the authors pulled it from a Senate committee hearing after concluding it wouldn't get a fair hearing, ending its chances for the session.
Who stopped it? The Wine Institute — the main lobby for California wineries — along with The Wine Group and Treasury Wine Estates. Family Winemakers board president GinaLisa Tamayo had framed the hope simply: encourage the wineries importing foreign bulk wine to buy from their neighbors instead. CAWG president Natalie Collins called the outcome a wake-up call, arguing that preserving the ability to blend foreign wine under an "American" label had won out over consumer trust at a moment when growers are tearing out vineyards.
That's the part worth sitting with. Small wineries and growers lined up on one side. A handful of very large companies lined up on the other. The large companies won.
What the other side says
Fairness matters, so here's the opposition's case in its own terms.
• The real problem is demand. The Wine Institute argued the bill would have unintended consequences without addressing falling wine consumption.
• Flexibility for bad years. The Institute's Tim Schmelzer said few producers use the "American" appellation and that the allowance helps them cope with agriculture's swings.
• Imports aren't cheap or easy. The Wine Group's Jeannie Bremer said shipping and blending foreign wine is complex and can raise costs, and disputed that big wineries casually replace California fruit. She also noted that Napa Valley and Sonoma County appellations don't require 100% local fruit either.
• Honest blends would lose information. Treasury Wine Estates said two Penfolds wines blend 85% California and 15% Australian wine and would be pushed into a generic "red table wine" label without a grape variety.
Some of that is fair. Demand really has fallen, and no labeling law will fix that by itself. But none of these arguments explains why a wine that's one-quarter foreign should be allowed to call itself American without saying so. The Napa comparison is apples to oranges — Napa's 15% allowance still has to come from California, while the "American" 25% can come from another hemisphere. And the Penfolds problem has an easy answer: name both countries on the label. Haas pointed to orange juice, where major brands now say "from the U.S. and Brazil," shoppers kept buying, and 100%-domestic brands gained a way to stand out. He also suggested genuine shortage years could be handled with temporary waivers.
Haas made one more point worth repeating. By his back-of-envelope math, steering even the cheapest "American" wine back to domestic fruit at $300 a ton could mean something like $84 million in grape purchases. For growers deciding whether to keep farming or start pulling vines, that isn't a rounding error.
How you can stand with California growers
You don't need to lobby anyone to make a difference. Start at the shelf.
Buy wines that name a place. A label that says "California" guarantees 100% California grapes. An AVA name — Lodi, Paso Robles, Clarksburg, Mendocino — means at least 85% from that area. "American" or "USA" guarantees only 75% U.S. fruit, with no disclosure required on the rest.
Read the fine print, especially on boxes. "Product of Chile" or "Product of Australia" under a California-sounding brand tells you exactly where your money is going.
Spend the same money closer to home. At the value end of the aisle, a Lodi or California-labeled bottle usually sits within a few dollars of an "American" one. That small switch sends your money to growers who are fighting to stay in business.
Shop small and direct. Buying from family wineries and grower-owned labels — in tasting rooms, through wine clubs, or at local shops — puts money directly into California vineyards.
Ask your grocer. Stores that advertise local support should be able to tell you which wines are 100% domestic. Asking the question tells them customers care.
Tell your legislators. AB 1585's sponsors say the fight isn't over. The next version will need to hear from drinkers, not just growers. The same goes for Congress on duty drawback — a federal program only Washington, D.C., can fix.
Every bottle is a vote
California growers aren't asking for a handout, and they aren't asking anyone to ban imported wine. They're asking for two things: a tax system that doesn't reward big companies for skipping the vineyard next door, and a label that tells the truth.
Until those change, the most powerful tool is the one in your hand at the store. The vines coming out of the ground in Lodi this fall don't have to be the future of California wine. Pick up the bottle that says where it came from — and help keep the people who grow it in business.
References
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