California wineries as well as certain wine businesses are required to file a report each year to the California Department of Food & Agriculture, the CDFA. The report is the California Grape Crush report, which is due by January 10th each year, for the previous grape harvest. Anyone familiar with this report, a rather large spreadsheet, knows that it is a bear written in a language that is challenging to say the least. I’ve been completing this report since 2002 and each year I still have to refresh my memory for how to fill in each tab!
Good news for the California wineries and wine businesses that qualify, the CDFA has just created an “EZ” version of the report. Essentially it is a much briefer version of the same bear of a spreadsheet that the full report contains. The EZ version of the report spreadsheet contains seven tabs, vs the full report which contains eleven tabs.
The businesses that qualify to use this version of the report CANNOT answer yes to any of the following three questions. I’ll share them with you here in the CDFA’s language, plus a translation for each.
- Did you purchase any grapes from someone who was NOT the original grower?
- Did you purchase and then resell any grapes?
- Did you crush grapes for someone else?
The first two questions here are essentially mirrors of each other. If a business purchases grapes, (makes a payment for them) and then turns around and sells those grapes to another wine business (collects money for them) then they can’t use this EZ version of the report. So if a business is on either the purchasing or selling side of some grapes that had previously been sold, they are answering yes to this question. The third question is specific to wineries that have either custom crush, or alternating proprietor (AP) clients at their site. In other words, either of those two client types are the “someone else” in this third question. Any winery sites that receive and crush grapes for any type of client at their site would answer yes to this question and thus would not qualify to use this version of the report.
Click HERE for a link to the CDFA’s page with downloads of the report spreadsheets, certification page and other links related to the report. You’ll find the EZ version of the report spreadsheet listed first under the Grape Crush Workbook section.
Our course, How to Complete the CA Grape Crush report is relevant to businesses that qualify to use this EZ version of the report, as it explains and shows how to fill in the information it requires. The course can be accessed HERE.