The Lodi Grape Festival opened on September 17, 2026, marking nearly 90 years of Lodi tradition, with a theme built around "Out of This World" and a featured commodity, corn, standing in for the county's broader agricultural output. Grape murals went up in the Ole Mettler Grape Pavilion. A Flock of Seagulls played the Sky River Casino stage on opening night. Families lined up for the Thursday value day, when kids 16 and under get in free and carnival wristbands drop to $25. It is the kind of event a town points to when it wants to explain what it is.
The same week, the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors received the 2025 crop report. Grape production value had fallen 14.82 percent to $272 million, a drop of $47 million from the year before. Grapes slid to fifth place among the county's top commodities. Andrew Genasci, executive director of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, told local reporters he expects the 2026 report, due out roughly a year from now, to show another decline.
That timing matters for anyone weighing a vineyard-designated parcel in Lodi as more than scenery. The festival and the crop report are describing the same acreage from two different angles, and only one of those angles tells you what the land is currently earning.
What Fifth Place Actually Displaced
Grapes have been Lodi's signature crop for generations. The area farms between 82,000 and 110,000 acres of wine grapes across more than 750 growers, and crushes roughly 20.5 percent of all California wine grapes, more than Napa Valley and Sonoma County combined. Slipping to fifth place in the county's own commodity ranking is not a rounding error. It reflects a structural pullback that shows up in the state's own harvest data.
The Final 2025 California Grape Crush Report, released by USDA/NASS and CDFA on April 30, 2026, put the statewide wine-variety crush at 2,626,155 tons, the smallest since 1999 and well below the 4.28 million ton peak recorded in 2018. Statewide, the average price across all varieties came in at $977.76 per ton, down 3.9 percent from 2024. District 11, which covers the Lodi growing region, crushed 532,409 tons in the Final report, a total that came in 9.8 percent below the district's 2024 tonnage.
Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission, described the underlying conditions in blunt terms:
"It's a bloodbath for all grape growers across California. It is the worst market condition growers have seen in their lifetime, with farmers in their 80s telling me they have never seen it this bad before."
Jacylyn Stokes-Iniguez, chair of the Lodi Winegrape Commission and a fourth-generation farmer, has pointed to which varieties are carrying the decline. Zinfandel, cabernet and chardonnay, the three varietals that have driven Lodi's identity for decades, were all down, with zinfandel taking the steepest hit. Sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio were the only two varietals to post a positive year.
Two Named Departures From the Crush Circuit
Numbers on a report are one thing. What happened to two specific operations in Lodi this year is another.
E. & J. Gallo Winery suspended crush operations at its Turner Road West facility in Lodi in June 2026, affecting roughly 20 positions. Turner Road West is a custom-crush operation, the kind of facility that turns grapes into wine for growers who do not run their own production infrastructure. Gallo framed the move as reflecting available capacity at its other wineries in the region, and said affected employees were offered the chance to pursue other roles within the company. The suspension follows earlier 2026 layoffs at Gallo properties in St. Helena, Healdsburg and Frei Ranch, and the 2025 closure of its Courtside Cellars winery in San Luis Obispo County.
Rack & Riddle, the largest custom sparkling wine producer in the United States, announced in January 2026 that it would permanently relocate operations from its Lodi facility at 1 Winemaster Way to its Sonoma County headquarters, folding into a planned Sparkling Innovation Park. The Lodi site, purchased from Weibel Family Winery in 2023, had been the company's second-largest operation, employing about 88 people and producing roughly 1 million cases of Charmat sparkling wine and in-line carbonation products a year. Sparkling wine remains the one growth segment in an otherwise shrinking U.S. wine market, which makes the relocation a story about geographic consolidation rather than falling demand for the product itself.
Both moves point to the same pressure. Lodi built much of its production around value-priced wines, generally those retailing under $12 a bottle, a category absorbing the steepest declines as overall consumption falls, premiumization pulls dollars toward $15-and-up bottles, and younger drinkers shift toward hard seltzer, craft beer or abstaining altogether. Large California wineries, historically Lodi's biggest grape buyers, are increasingly importing cheap bulk wine instead of purchasing local fruit.
The Numbers Side by Side
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Statewide crush, all varieties (Final 2025 report, released April 30, 2026) | 2,761,914 tons, down 6.1% from 2024 |
| Statewide wine-variety crush | 2,626,155 tons, the smallest total since 1999 |
| District 11 (Lodi region) crush | 532,409 tons, 9.8% below District 11's 2024 total |
| Statewide average price per ton, all varieties | $977.76, down 3.9% from 2024 |
| San Joaquin County grape production value, 2025 crop report | $272 million, down 14.82% ($47 million) year over year |
What This Means If a Vineyard Parcel Is on Your List
None of this changes what makes Lodi a pleasant place to live. The town was named America's Favorite Small Town 2026 by Parade and Steller, and that recognition is about downtown, hospitality and daily life, not about what a specific block of vines earned last vintage. Those two storylines run on separate tracks, and the mistake is letting one stand in for the other when a listing includes acreage described as a working vineyard.
Right now, the region is mid-harvest. Lodi's crush window typically runs from mid-August through late fall, and this September's peak crush is happening at the same time the festival is drawing crowds a few miles away. That overlap is worth remembering when a listing photo shows full canopy and heavy fruit. What a buyer actually needs to know is what that fruit is contracted to become, and at what price.
Before treating vineyard acreage as an income line rather than a landscape feature, it is worth asking:
- What variety is planted, and is it one still gaining ground, like sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio, or one in retreat, like zinfandel, cabernet or chardonnay?
- Does the block carry an existing purchase or custom-crush contract, with whom, and for how many more vintages?
- What price per ton did the grower actually receive on the most recent harvest, rather than a multi-year average that predates the current downturn?
- Has any part of the acreage gone unpicked, been pulled out, or had its contract renegotiated in the last two vintages?
- If any portion relies on custom-crush arrangements, has that processor been part of the recent consolidation among larger operators in the area?
Grower economics in the current market often run tight. In a difficult recent year, per-acre revenue at $3,000 or less has sat against farming costs of $3,000 to $4,500 an acre, a gap that turns a vineyard from an income producer into a carrying cost until the market or the planted variety changes. That math belongs in the conversation before an offer, not after close.
FAQ
Does a falling crop report mean vineyard land in Lodi is losing value? Land value and grape income are separate calculations. A block's crush volume tells you what it earned this year. What the acreage is worth for replanting, an alternate variety, or long-term hold depends on other factors entirely, and the two should not be assumed to move together.
Are all Lodi vineyards affected the same way? No. Varietal performance has diverged sharply. Sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio posted a positive year while zinfandel, cabernet and chardonnay, Lodi's traditional strengths, all declined, with zinfandel down the most.
What happened to the grapes that used to go through Gallo's Turner Road West facility? Gallo says it is relying on capacity at its other regional wineries. Growers who used Turner Road West for custom crush now need alternate arrangements, which is worth confirming directly if a property's income history depended on that facility.
If you are looking at a vineyard, ranch, or ag-designated parcel anywhere in the Central Valley or Sierra Foothills and want help separating what a property is worth to live on from what it is actually contracted to earn, Concierge Homes can walk through the specifics with you before you write an offer.
