Wine, a work in progress

"Harvest 2026 is officially all in... and you’ll never guess what our last pick was!

An early spring jumpstarted the growing season and meant we began picking early ripening varietals, like Sauvignon Blanc, earlier than usual. The summer ultimately took a cooler turn with August bringing normal temperatures followed by the coolest September on record. The cool conditions extended hang time, allowing flavors to develop beautifully while maintaining freshness in the grapes.

Some of the standouts for me so far are Merlot, Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, and Malbec. All four are showing ripe fruit flavors and seamless textures, and I’m excited about what we’re seeing in the cellar.

With all that incredible fruit coming in, what was our final pick of Harvest 2026?

If you guessed Riesling, you were right!

I’m excited to be working with one of my favorite grapes again, especially as this marks the first time we’ve worked with Riesling at L’Ecole. We have something special planned for this wine, so keep an eye out for it a few years down the road.

Now that the fruit is all in, our cellar team still has several weeks of fermentation and pressing ahead before the wines make their way to barrel. Then comes the cleaning, and finally, a chance to catch our breath after 10 weeks of nonstop harvest activity."

- David Rosenthal, Director of Winemaking, L'Ecole № 41, 10/26/26

"Around this time of year, we usually start getting questions like, “How does this year compare to last year?” or “What vintage is this similar to?”

For 2026, the answer is easy: there really is no comparison. Not only did harvest get off to an unusually early start, but it will also wrap up early. The vintage was mild overall, with no pressure from heat spikes or rain events. Yields were lighter, but the fruit showed beautiful flavor development and great concentration.

Winemaker Kevin Hall says the wines have wonderful color and livelier acidity than last year. He is particularly impressed with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. While we were prepared for this year's pace, the early harvest dates caught some of our suppliers by surprise, and we’re still waiting on our final barrel deliveries this week.

Fortunately, our newest wines are not quite ready for those last 300 barrels!

Now that the frantic pace of grape picking has slowed down, the vineyard crews can relax a little. However, our winemaking team will be busy with the 2026 harvest for the next four to six weeks.

Fermentation is still underway across many of our varietals, so we still have plenty of work to do. Punchdowns, draining tanks, and moving the young wines into barrels will keep Kevin Hall's team busy as the wines begin their ultimate transformation from fresh-picked fruit to wine.

While our vineyard crews no longer have to wake up in the middle of the night to pick grapes, they’ll soon be busy back in the vineyards. Family farming happens year-round, with the coming months bringing equipment maintenance, erosion control work ahead of the rainy season, and, most importantly, months of pruning during the vines’ dormant period. Their work sets the foundation for next year’s crop."

- The Family Team, Alexander Valley Vineyards, 10/1/26

"We’re busy wrapping up Harvest 2026 here at Porter Creek Vineyards! Only our 2026 Estate Syrah remains on the vines at this point.

It’s been a productive, enjoyable process, with perfect fruit coming in, and enough time to rest between days of picking … and that made everything run super-smoothly.

Despite the high temperatures of the last few days, it’s been a relatively cooler summer here for us on the property … so the early harvest really has more to do with the warmer-than-normal weather we had back in the first week of February and the third week of March."

- Jonathan DeMichael, Tasting Room, Porter Creek Vineyards, 9/10/26