Central California grape industry leaders weren't ready to pop champagne corks. But they weren't hanging crepe, either, in reporting early signs of economic recovery in the wine, juice concentrate, and raisin segments.

    The optimistic outlook emerged at a recent conference in Fresno held by the Central California Wine Growers, California Association of Winegrape Growers and the California Wine Industry Symposium Group.

    According to speaker Nat DiBuduo, president of Allied Grape Growers, "The market has changed and we are getting better." He said quotes from wineries are circulating for 2004-crop grapes at higher prices than were paid in 2003.

    Reduced supply is one reason for improvement, he explained. The wine grape marketing cooperative's estimates are that as much as 80,000 to 90,000 acres of vineyards in the Central Valley have been pulled since the late 1990s.

    The removals are thought to include about 35,000 acres of Thompson Seedless and 50,000 of wine varieties. That acreage is not being replanted in grapes, and more uneconomical acreage will likely be pulled.

    Expressed another way, he added, at an average of eight tons per acres, removals thus far represent at least 640,000 tons fewer grapes on the market, or about twice the 2002 crush of combined vineyards in Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties.