Overview

Viticulture was originally brought to California by Spanish Franciscan friars, who in 1769 began cultivating grapes at California missions in order to produce sacramental wines. It was not until the 1800s that the production of table grapes became popular. William Wolfskill, a former trapper, is credited with planting the first table grape vineyard on land just outside of present-day Los Angeles in 1839 (California Table Grape Commission). By the mid 1800s, as the gold rush brought more and more miners to California, would-be miners began investing in table grape vineyards instead of ore to make their living selling fresh fruit to the miners.

Today, California accounts for 99 percent of all U.S. commercially grown table grapes, and table grape vineyards cover more than 80,000 acres in the state. However, compared to other grape uses, the table grape industry accounts for a small portion of the total grapes grown. In 2004, of the $2.76 billion in total value of California grape production, fresh table grapes accounted for only 20 percent ($535 million). The majority (by value) of California grape production was used for wine (58 percent), with raisin production accounting for an additional 22 percent. Also in terms of value, the state of Washington is the major producer of grapes used for juice (NASS).  February 2006 . . . Grapes


Sources

• Fresh-Market Grapes Account for Less than Half of All U.S. Grapes, Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook, Economic Research Service, USDA, 2007.
• Fruits and Tree Nuts, Briefing Room, Economic Research Service, USDA. 
• The U.S. Grape Juice Industry, Ag Marketing Resource Center, Kansas State University, 2003.
• The U.S. Processing Grape Juice Industry, Ag Marketing Resource Center, Kansas State University, 2003.

Marketing

• American Society for Enology & Viticulture - A scientific organization for the wine and grape industry.
• Appellation, Variety, and the Price of California Wines. This research paper by Oh Sang Kwon, Hyunok Lee, and Daniel A. Sumner shows how variety and California appellation interact to affect premium wine prices. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. ARE Update. Vol. 11, No. 4, March/April 2008.
• Case Study Discussing Using the Cooperative Model for Northern Grape Growers 
• China Agricultural Data, Agricultural Issues Center, University of California, 2001 - Information on production, cost of production and trade.
• Current Economic Trends in the California Wine Industry. The number of wine grape growers is growing slowly but the number of wineries has doubled in the past decade. Rachael E. Goodhue, Richard D. Green, Dale M. Heien and Philip L. Martin.  University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. ARE Update. Vol. 11, No. 4, March/April 2008.
• Fruits and Vegetables: Enhanced Federal Efforts to Increase Consumption Could Yield Health Benefits for Americans, GAO Report Number 02-657, 2002.

Processing/Manufacturing

• Department of Viticulture - Information on grape production and enology from University of California-Davis.
• Viticulture Guide - Iowa State University cooperative extension production guides, budgets and supplies.

Production

• Available Cost and Return Studies, University of California Extension Service - Collection of cost/return analysis studies for a variety of production scenarios.
• Clusters of Grapes and Wine, Rolf A.E. Mueller and Daniel A. Sumner, University of California Agricultural Issues Center, 2006 - This research paper discusses the theory of clusters and the competitiveness and spatial organization of the California wine industry.
• Evaluation & Research on Grape Cultivars, Production Practices and Enology Practices, American Viticulture and Enology Research Network (AVERN).
• Grape, Integrated Pest Management guidelines, University of California, Davis.  
• PlantFacts, Ohio State University - This Web site provides a full-text search engine of all extension and academic department information from all land-grant universities in the United States. Additionally, there are significant image and video databases, a FAQ database and a glossary.
• Recent Trends in the California Wine Grape Industry. Over the last 30 years the wine grape industry has expanded rapidly in acreage and production. As shown in this paper by Richard Volpe, Richard Green, Dale Heien and Richard Howitt growth has has been driven by changes in consumer demand and has not been uniform across grape varieties or in the major growing regions. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. ARE Update. Vol. 11, No. 4, March/April 2008.
• Variety of Research Topics on Wine, Cultivars and Pest Control, Viticulture & Enology Research Center.
• Various Research Projects Funded by the American Vineyard Foundation, American Vineyard Foundation.
• Wild Pigs in California: The Issues.  Marcia Kreith.  AIC Issues Brief No. 33,  December 2007.  The story of the wild pig in California, its economic and environmental impacts and evolving policy concerns.

Businesses/Case Studies

• National Grape Cooperative Association, Ag Marketing Resource Center, 2003 - Jack Kaplan, an entrepreneur, purchased a small grape processing facility in 1933 from some investment bankers in Brocton, New York, and called his new company National Grape Corporation.
• Northern Vineyard Winery, Ag Marketing Resource Center.
• Northwest Berry & Grape Information Network - Cooperative effort by Oregon State University, the University of Idaho and Washington State University.
• Welch Foods, Inc., Ag Marketing Resource Center, 2003 - Welch Foods, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Grape Cooperative Association, Inc. (National Grape).

Links checked February 2008.