grape acreage

California Grape Acreage Report, 2017 Summary

Dan Industry News Release, Nuts & Grapes, Wine

California’s 2017 grape acreage totaled 880,000 acres.  Of the total grape acreage, 829,000 were bearing while 51,000 were non-bearing.  The wine-type grape acreage is estimated at 599,000 acres.  Of the total acres, 560,000 were bearing and grape acreage39,000 were non-bearing.  Table-type grape acreage totaled 121,000 acres with 111,000 bearing and 10,000 non-bearing.  Acreage of raisin-type grapes totaled 160,000 acres, of which 158,000 were bearing and 2,000 were non-bearing.

The leading wine-type varieties continued to be Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.  Flame Seedless was the leading table-type grape variety.  Thompson Seedless continued to be the leading raisin-type variety and was utilized for raisins, fresh market, concentrate, and wine.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture partners with the Pacific Regional Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) to conduct an annual acreage survey of California grape growers.  The purpose of this survey is to provide annual grape acreage with information on new plantings and removals.  It is a continuation of a long series of industry-funded grape acreage surveys.

This report consists of two parts:

  • Estimated grape acreage — bearing, non-bearing, and total.
  • Detailed data by variety, and year planted — as voluntarily reported by grape growers and maintained in our database.

With perfect information, the estimated grape acreage and the detailed data would be the same.  However, this will never be the case for the following reasons:

  • A voluntary survey of approximately 8,300 grape growers is unlikely to attain 100 percent completeness.
  • It is difficult to detect growers who are planting grapes for the first time.
  • The detailed data reflects vine removals from about 22,000 acres during the past twelve months.  Of this number, significant acreage was harvested in 2017 prior to being pulled out.  As a result, harvested acreage removed in 2017 is included in the estimated acreage, but excluded from the detailed data.

Read the full California Grape Acreage Report, 2017 Summary.