California growers removed 47,229 vineyard acres in one year, mapping project finds

California’s wine industry removed 47,229 acres of vineyards in the 12 months ended Aug. 1, according to a new statewide mapping project released by the California Association of Winegrape Growers, a sign of how deeply weak market conditions are reshaping the nation’s largest wine-producing state.

The same analysis identified 439,115 acres of standing winegrape vineyards across California as of Aug. 1, 2026, CAWG said in a release issued this week. The group said the findings reflect difficult business conditions for growers as wine demand remains under pressure and producers adjust acreage to match a slower market.

The project was conducted by Land IQ, a Sacramento agricultural and environmental science firm, for CAWG and a group of grower and vintner organizations. It used remote sensing, artificial intelligence and field verification to map vineyard blocks across the state. The results were compiled by county, Crush District and American Viticultural Area, giving growers and wineries a more current picture of where vineyard acreage remains in the ground and where it has been removed.

CAWG President Natalie Collins said the data captures changes that many growers have already been experiencing firsthand. In the group’s statement, she said the numbers reflect hard decisions affecting farm families, employees and local businesses, and that acreage is adjusting to a difficult market. She also said the industry is trying to rebuild demand for California wine while making sure growers remain in business if that demand improves.

The figures offer one of the clearest recent measures of the correction underway in California vineyards. They matter beyond the farm gate because a sustained reduction in acreage can affect future grape supply, pricing discussions between growers and wineries, and decisions about vineyard investment, financing and contracts across the broader beverage business. If removals continue at a high pace, the adjustment could eventually tighten supplies in some regions or varieties, though the report itself does not forecast those outcomes.

The mapping project also comes with important limits. CAWG said “standing acreage” includes a wide range of vineyard conditions: bearing, non-bearing, minimally farmed, mothballed and abandoned vineyards, as long as the vines are still physically in the ground. The mapping does not separate those categories and does not determine whether an individual vineyard is commercially active. That means the 439,115-acre figure should not be read as a direct measure of productive acreage available for the market in a given season.

The report is now in its second year and builds on the first statewide mapping effort released in 2025. CAWG said the new version includes newly captured vineyard acreage, classification changes and refined field boundaries. It also warned that acreage newly captured in the mapping should not be interpreted simply as new 2026 plantings, since some changes reflect improved identification and updated boundaries rather than fresh development.

That distinction matters in a period when California growers are trying to separate temporary shifts from longer-term structural change. Vineyard removals can result from several pressures at once, including weaker grape demand, low prices, high farming costs, water concerns and decisions by owners to leave land idle or move to other crops. The CAWG release centered on market weakness as the main driver behind the current adjustment.

California remains the dominant force in U.S. wine production, so a statewide reset in vineyard acreage is closely watched by wineries, distributors, bulk wine traders and lenders. Large removals can influence expectations about future crop size and the balance between grapes available for crush and wine that wineries still hold in inventory. For beverage companies planning purchases, brand strategies or capital spending, better acreage data can help clarify how fast the supply base is shrinking and where that change is concentrated.

The project was funded and supported by CAWG along with Allied Grape Growers and several regional groups, including the Lake County Winegrape Commission, Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association, Lodi District Grape Growers Association, Lodi Winegrape Commission, Napa Valley Grapegrowers, Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance, Santa Barbara Vintners, Sonoma County Winegrape Commission, Suisun Valley Vintners and Growers Association, and Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association.

CAWG said a statewide summary and a project FAQ are available publicly, while the full report and a password-protected interactive mapping tool are limited to members of CAWG and participating regional organizations. The tool allows users to compare the 2025 and 2026 mapping layers and examine changes in the state’s vineyard footprint.

The group, Allied Grape Growers and Land IQ plan to discuss the findings in a webinar scheduled for Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. Pacific time. CAWG said the session will review the results, demonstrate the mapping tool and take questions from the industry.

For growers, the new acreage numbers give statistical backing to a downturn that has already been visible in vineyard removals across multiple regions. For wineries and other beverage businesses that depend on California grapes, the data provides an updated baseline for judging how much productive capacity remains in place as the market works through a prolonged period of weaker demand.