California wineries forced to torch vineyards in latest drastic move for crippled industry

California’s wine industry has gotten so desperate that one vineyard owner torched his own vines after deciding they were worth more as ashes than grapes.

The Golden State’s struggling wineries have faced mounting financial pressure for years, with conditions becoming so grim that California lawmakers recently appealed to Canada to reopen its market to American wine.

But while that international lifeline remains uncertain, a new report from The New York Times is offering a look at just how bleak the situation has become.

Jason Smith, CEO of Valley Farm Management, said he recently sold all of his land — then set fire to his vineyards because there was no longer any economic reason to keep them.

“There’s literally no way for me to make money,” the 57-year-old Smith said.

Wine sales have reached a low point not seen in over two decades, which is largely due to American’s recent aversion to alcohol in general.

An October 2025 Gallup poll revealed that 54% of American adults consume alcohol, the lowest percentage since Gallup started tracking behavior since 1939.

California produces just over 80% of the nation’s wine, with the Golden State seeing a boom in pinot noir after the 2004 film “Sideways” was released.

Mark Williams, who founded the Arista Winery in 2002 and ran it until closing up shop in 2024, remembered the boom fondly.

“You could almost feel it. All people wanted was pinot noir,” Williams said.

Smith, whose company Valley Farm Management started from humble roots on the Monterey Coast in the 1970s, also said that his winery had its highest profits in the years after “Sideways” was released, though he added that merlot sales dropped after Paul Giamatti’s character bashed it in the film.

Still, demand ultimately plummeted, to the point where pinot production dropped a whopping 30% since 2021, with Smith adding, “We were so pinot noir-centric. And then there just wasn’t the demand.”

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Smith said that on the day he burned his vineyard, he saw a neighboring vineyard also pulling grapes up from the ground.

He sold the primary vineyard to Jackson Family Wines, with other land parcels being sold to private equity companies and the equipment being sold off for cash.

“This is all I’ve done my whole life. I’m going to have to find a new career,” Smith said.

Wine experts are claiming that hundreds more wineries are expected to close in the next two years, which could be the death knell for the entire industry.

“In our 54 years in the grape and wine business, we’ve never seen the amount of change and turmoil and chaos that’s going on right now,” said Steve Lohr, president of J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines.

Michael Meluskey, the general manager of the Santa Barbara winery Au Bon Climat, planned on reducing production due to hampered demand, though he remained confident his business will survive.

“People love wine, they love wine with food,” he said. “It’s like any business that goes through cycles.”

Meluskey’s winemaker Marc Piro looked on the bright side, and joked, “Luckily we won’t have A.I. taking our jobs.”

The California Association of Winegrowers revealed in late 2025 that production was the lowest in 30 years, with an estimated 800,000 tons of grapes that were not picked or sold.