Schramsberg Vineyards
This year’s Schramsberg Vineyards sparkling harvest has long been wrapped up. We were gifted with an early start by Mother Nature this year, with our first pick being July 16. If you’ve been following along, you may think to yourself, that seems early. You’d be correct! This is a full week earlier than the earliest pick on record for the winery. It’s crazy to think that we just wrapped up tirage bottling in mid-June. The team had barely a month to get the winery cleaned and prepped to receive fruit. The interns started just after the Fourth of July.
The early picking season was due to a long flowering and extended berry set filled with heat, cold, wind, and a little bit of rain causing lower yields—more so with our Pinot Noir vineyards than Chardonnay. This produced small clusters and even smaller berries on each cluster, which leads to more concentration of flavor (which we like) and a faster ripening period. Also, for the first time ever (if memory serves), our harvest began with Pinot Noir from the Russian River Valley. Normally we’d start in Carneros, but as this year continues to prove, there’s a first time for everything. Overall, the fruit quality looks great for this vintage and we’re excited to taste it in its entirety at the end of the picking season. The upside to an early start is that there’s also typically an early finish, so instead of a summer vacation, our team is getting to enjoy some R&R in the autumn!
Davies Vineyards
The 2026 Crush is in high gear at Davies Family Vineyards, with grapes arriving and being offloaded before dawn, while the steady hands of our seasoned permanent crew are organizing the day’s mix of pump-overs and punchdowns before the sun comes up. Each step of the process is happening now: processing, fermentation and extraction, pressing and barrel down. This means all hands-on-deck, with our staff assisted by this years’ unique mix of interns soaking up as much knowledge and experience as they can, enduring the second half of harvest on the Red Wine side of the business. The entire teams’ efforts are in pursuit of delivering the finest wines this season has created.
Another novel growing season has led to yet another unique harvest. Late seasonal rains, matched with consistent foggy, cool and overcast days, and blustery afternoons, all contributed to an extended and challenging bloom and fruit-set in many of our vineyards. The resulting lower yields have been a blessing with fruit clusters a mix of large and small berries, or “Hens and Chicks” that provide concentrated color and flavors because of their high skin-to-juice ratios. This will be a marker for both winemaking and consumer to identify this vintage and these wines as they age, develop and mature. We hope you are looking forward to enjoying these wines as much as we are.
