The 2015 economic impact report of the California wine industry – both state and national impact – has been released by the Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers.
Here are some highlights from their recent report.
Lots of jobs
The California wine industry employees 786,000 people nationwide, equaling $34.9 billion in wages, and 325,000 people in California, equaling $17.2 billion in wages.
Big bucks
The California wine industry generated $114 billion nationwide (19% increase from 2014) and $57.6 billion in California (17% increase from 2014).
Paying the taxman
Nationwide, the California industry paid $15.2 billion in taxes and $7.6 billion in the state. This includes annual local, state, and federal business, excise and personal taxes.
Tourist trap
Statewide, 23.6 million people visited California wineries in 2015. They spent $7.2 billion on wine-related tourism.
Many wineries making a lot of wine
A whopping 85% of US wine is produced in California by approximately 4,600 bonded wineries – the majority of which are multi-generational and family-owned businesses. Our wineries produce 229 million cases of wine in last year.
Winegrowing galore
Grapes for California wine are grown in 49 of our 58 counties by 5,900 growers. We have 138 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) that have 608,000 acres of planted grapes. These vineyards produced a whopping 3.7 million tons of grapes last year.
Learn more about the Winegrape Association at wineinstitute.org and the California Association of Winegrape Growers at cawg.org.
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