California Grapegrowing Picked Up Speed Last Year

Posted by David Eddy|April 24, 2014

The numbers are in and there’s no doubt about it, grape planting in California is on the rebound. But what the effects of the drought will be are anybody’s guess.

California’s 2013 grape acreage totaled 878,000 acres, according to statistics recently released by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. That’s up from 848,000 in 2011 and 847,000 in 2012.

The year before that, in 2010, total acreage bottomed out at 842,000, the lowest level since the mid-1990s. Older grape varieties had been pulled out of the San Joaquin Valley in preceding years, as growers planted other crops, such as almonds and pistachios. So the 30,000-plus increase represents quite a comeback.

Of the total grape acreage, 820,000 were bearing while 58,000 were non-bearing. The wine-type grape acreage is estimated at 570,000 acres. Of the total acres, 525,000 were bearing and 45,000 were non-bearing. Table-type grape acreage totaled 105,000 acres with 95,000 bearing and 10,000 non-bearing. Acreage of raisin-type grapes totaled 203,000 acres, of which 200,000 were bearing and 3,000 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.