As Oregon’s grape harvest gets underway, vineyards are confronting a market downturn that has left grapes unpicked and some businesses shuttered. State wine grape production dropped 25% last year, and 110 vineyards and wineries closed, according to the 2025 Oregon Vineyard and Winery Census. The downturn has several causes, including a glut of grapes, higher operating costs and declining alcohol consumption among younger people. Oregon wine exports to Canada plunged 83% after Canadian liquor boards removed U.S. wines in response to U.S. tariffs that took effect last year. Paul Durant, owner of Red Ridge Farms in the Dundee Hills, said the industry has not faced a slump quite like this one. Unlike the downturn during the 2008 recession, he said, the current pressures come from multiple directions. Oregon’s vineyard count has more than doubled from the 480 vineyards recorded at the turn of the millennium, according to Oregon State University. Meanwhile, consumers have more alternatives to alcohol, including cannabis and nonalcoholic drinks. Durant said some of his wine club members have also told him that GLP-1 weight-loss medications have reduced their appetite for wine. Rising fuel, electricity and water costs add to the strain. Public health messaging about alcohol has shifted, too: the World Health Organization described alcohol as a toxic, psychoactive substance in 2023. Earlier claims that moderate red-wine consumption was beneficial drew on studies that, researchers later found, did not account for differences in income, diet and lifestyle. Durant expects Red Ridge Farms to harvest about 350 tons of grapes this year. The winery will use 80 tons for its own wine and plans to sell the rest to long-standing customers. He said he is prepared to offer buyers better lending terms if needed, but is also reducing the vineyard’s output from about four tons per acre to perhaps three by pruning vines more aggressively. He is exploring new ways to reach customers, including a pinot noir- or chardonnay-based sparkling grape drink developed with Oregon State University’s Food Innovation Center. Durant is also testing export opportunities in Brazil, where an importer is distributing his wine in markets including São Paulo. For wineries, a tasting room alone may no longer be enough to bring in customers, Durant said. Red Ridge Farms also draws visitors with its shop, olive groves, beehives and lavender fields, while Durant and others take their products to events such as Portland’s Rose Festival. Oregon breweries are facing some of the same changes in consumer habits. National craft beer production declined more than 5% last year, and several prominent Oregon brands, including Rogue Ales, Upright Brewery and Culmination Brewing, have closed. But Lisa Allen, president of the Oregon Brewers Guild, said Oregon has avoided the steepest national declines. At Heater Allen Brewing in McMinnville, the brewery has added craft nights, live music, board games, trivia and speed puzzling to attract customers beyond its beer offerings. Breweries are also selling nonalcoholic drinks, kombucha and hop water, Allen said. Allen said community support matters when local breweries and vineyards are struggling: people may be upset when a business closes, she said, even if they have not visited in a long time. “If you want these places to remain part of your community,” Allen said, “then you need to actually go.”