Made Local Magazine, May/June 2026

There’s a new crop popping up across Sonoma County. You’ve probably seen them while driving by rolling hills or along rural roads. Emerging from soil once dominated by grapes, this new crop is sturdy, oddly rectangular, and complicates the future of local agriculture: “For Sale” signs.

For half a century, ever since local wine began competing with European imports, the proliferation of vineyards here has felt unstoppable, almost inevitable. While apple, hop, prune, and even dairy production shrank, vineyards grew from just 12,000 acres in 1970 to over 60,000 in more recent years, so ubiquitous they’ve become synonymous with the region. 

Then came 2025, a disruptive year for nearly everything in this country. Wine was no exception. 

First up: the kids just aren’t drinking like they used to. In fact, the kids aren’t alone. The percentage of U.S. adults who consume alcohol has fallen to the lowest point since Gallup started tracking these trends 90 years ago. 

Then came our aggressive “America First” policy. While supposedly meant to protect domestic industries, local growers instead began to face an international consumer backlash. Wine exports dropped by 30% last year. So too did tourism, a pillar of the industry, as visitors from Canada—who once flocked to our warmer climes for wine tasting—fell by 28%.

Lastly, labor, the backbone of the wine industry, has endured the threat of ICE raids, border patrol, and state-sanctioned vitriol, not only preventing immigration but sending away workers, disrupting agricultural communities, and driving up labor costs for growers. 

Add to all this the overly optimistic plantings of the past decade and here we are: grapes left unharvested on the vine, enormous vats of unsellable juice, a 13.5% drop in Sonoma County grapes crushed, and over 2,700 acres of vines pulled up in 2025 alone.

Some believe these trends represent a harsh but necessary corrective to an oversaturated market, one that will eventually settle. Others in our community, however, are asking whether these changes could be a corrective of another sort, one in which a single overwhelming monocrop might make space for the rest of agriculture, which has struggled for decades to regain a foothold.