A Look at Napa Over the Years - With Graphs

Three graphs that tell a tale of trends in Napa wine. Every pictures tells a story, don't it?

All graphs are from the American Association of Wine Economists.

Click on an image to enlarge for readability.

A look at the rise in Cabernet Sauvignon grape prices for Napa, Sonoma, and the state average. This is the cost to the winery for a ton of Cabernet grapes. The dip in 2020 is related to possible smoke taint from the Glass Fire.

 

The ripeness of the grapes picked which directly translates into the alcohol content of the finished wine. The numbers on the left side (Y-axis) are degrees Brix, a measurement of the amount of sugar in the grapes. You see a big dip in 2011, a season of cool weather followed by rain so many of the vineyards did not produce grapes of typical ripeness.
 

Warming temperatures affect sugar levels.

A snapshot of two eras in Napa agriculture:

1960 - balanced farming
Animal production  - $12 million (mostly beef, milk, eggs)
Fruit and nut crops - $5 million (main crop was prunes)
Wine grapes - $2 million
There were 9,600 acres of grapes and 7,600 acres of plum trees for prunes

2010 - all your eggs in one basket
$461 million for all agriculture, $454 million of that was from the 45,000 acres of  wine grapes.
Animal products were worth less than $4 million. The other fruits, plus nuts and & vegetables  was worth a bit over $1 million (two-thirds of this is olives).
Info from the 2010 Napa County Annual Crop report.