(Wines&Vines) - California’s wine grape production in 2015 slipped 5% from the previous year and average prices for wine grapes fell by as much as 12% from the previous year, according to the preliminary California Grape Crush Report released today. The drop in production and prices did not come as a surprise following a string of large harvests, years of drought and poor conditions for fruit set during spring 2015.

According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which prepared the report, red wine grape production in 2015 dropped 5% from the previous year to 2,037,083 tons, and white grapes also slipped 5% to 1,66,159 tons. The total wine grape harvest of 3.69 million tons in 2015 represented a decrease of slightly more than 5% from the 2014 harvest. 

Coastal-inland disparity

While the interior regions of the state enjoyed average to slightly larger than normal yields, prices continued to fall for those grapes. The average price for all wine grape varieties was $675, which was 11% less than 2014. Red wine grapes fetched an average of $784 per ton (down by 12%), and the average price paid for white wine grapes was 10% lower than last year at $539.

Prices for premium grapes increased from the previous year. Napa County grapes had the highest average price of $4,329 per ton, which was 6% more than last year. The average price for Napa grapes was 77% higher that of grapes from crush District 3, Sonoma and Marin counties, which had the second-highest average price of $2,441 per ton