The Opposition Just Made Our Case for American Wine

Now help us finish it.

We’ve spent the spring telling legislators why AB 1585 matters. This month, the companies opposing this bill did the job for us.

Quick context for anyone new here: AB 1585 would require that wine labeled “American” be made from 100% American-grown grapes. Today, 25% of wine in a bottle labeled as “American” can come from anywhere in the world, with no disclosure. CAWG and Family Winemakers of California sponsored the bill to fix that. The State Assembly agreed and sent it off the floor on a 67-0 bipartisan vote.

Now the bill is in the Senate, and the opposition has ramped up its effort to kill it. Large multinational beverage companies are working both directly through their own lobbyists and through the Wine Institute to defeat AB 1585. These are the same companies that told the Legislature how proudly they own and operate iconic California wine brands.

That puts a clear choice in front of the Senate Governmental Organization Committee: stand with the growers, farmworkers, and communities of California, or with the global companies fighting to keep foreign wine in bottles labeled "American."

The opposition is telling senators it speaks for the California wine industry. So let's look at what that same industry's biggest players did over the past few weeks.

Surplus

Treasury Wine Estates has announced it is cutting its portfolio from 76 brands to fewer than 30, and the Wall Street Journal reported it will sell what the company called “surplus” vineyards and wineries across Napa, Sonoma, and the Central Coast, including its Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo wineries. Their word. Surplus. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that over the next four years, Treasury will also significantly reduce its California vineyard acreage by selling vineyards, ending leases, and not renewing grape contracts. If you grow grapes in this state, read that last part again.

Here’s what makes it harder to take. Just a few weeks ago, Treasury testified against AB 1585 in the Assembly and told legislators how proudly it owns and operates California wineries, naming Beringer among them. Today, Beringer isn’t on the list of brands Treasury intends to keep.

A few days after Treasury’s announcement, Gallo confirmed it’s suspending crush operations at its Turner Road facility in Lodi, laying off about 20 workers. That follows closures earlier this year in St. Helena, Healdsburg, and San Luis Obispo that cost more nearly 100 California workers their jobs.

Here’s the connection: imported bulk wine arrives in this country already crushed and fermented. Every gallon of it is a gallon that will never pass through a California crush facility, and never touch the hands of an American farmworker or crush pad worker.

And the economics behind that substitution are no secret. Earlier this year, Delicato Family Wines, maker of one of the best-selling boxed wines in the country, put it plainly in a WineBusiness.com interview: “How’s a grower going to sell me grapes at $400 a ton in Lodi when it costs $600 to $800 a ton to grow grapes now?”

Meanwhile, bulk wine imports, finished wine shipped in giant bladders, were up 19% last year. That is roughly 45 million gallons, the equivalent of more than 220 million bottles. The wine is still being bottled and sold here. It's just not being grown or crushed here. And under the loophole AB 1585 would close, some of it can go straight into bottles labeled 'American,' with no disclosure to the person buying it. The companies blending imported bulk wine capture the value of the American name while sourcing around American growers.

Selling America, Misleading Americans

If the American brand doesn’t mean anything, why go all in? Take a look at these two brands – produced by two companies who are fighting to defeat AB 1585.

Bota Box RedVolution, American Red Wine by Delicato Family Wines

A boxed wine that proudly touts the American brand, red, white, and blue, even with the America 250 stamp. “Raising a glass to 250 years of American Independence.” -BotaBox.com

Liberty Creek, Founders Red Blend, American Table Wine, by E&J Gallo Winery

A display of the iconic Liberty Bell and notes that include “Celebrates our proud heritage rooted in the rich soils of the United States.” – libertycreekwine.com

When a consumer reaches for these wines, who do they think they're supporting? American growers. American workers. American communities. The label is built to make them think exactly that. The only question AB 1585 asks is whether that has to be true.

And to be fair, these wines may well be filled with 100% American-grown fruit. But if they are, why fight legislation that simply asks them to keep doing what they’re already doing?

They Made our Case

We didn't have to make these arguments. The opposition made them for us. They told the Legislature they proudly own California wineries, then called those wineries surplus. They wrap their wine in the flag, then fight a bill that would require the wine to match the label. At Wine Paris, the Wine Institute, the trade association leading the opposition, armed its members with talking points insisting that "wines from one part of the world are not interchangeable with wines from another." Now it's fighting the California bill that says exactly that. Every claim the opposition takes to the Senate is contradicted by something they've said or done.

The Senate’s Turn

AB 1585 now sits before the Senate Governmental Organization Committee, where opponents have been working hard to stall it. And remember, in Sacramento, legislation doesn’t always die with a recorded vote. Sometimes it simply never moves forward.

Back in the Assembly, members faced a simple choice: stand with California’s growers, farmworkers, and communities, or with the multinational corporations fighting to keep foreign wine in bottles labeled “American.” They answered 67 to 0.

Now the same choice is in front of the Senate.

This is where we need your help! Even if you’ve written letters or joined an advocacy campaign before, we’re asking you to reach out again. Tell every member of the Senate GO Committee to vote AYE on AB 1585. CAWG has made it easy through our platform.