Harvest Came Early This Year!

Harvest Came Early to Sonoma Wine Country!

The 2026 harvest is underway—and in our 26 years here, we’ve never seen it start this early.

One of the pleasures of living in Sonoma County is watching the seasons unfold in the vineyards. Budbreak arrives in spring, tiny clusters flower and set, grapes soften and change color during veraison, and eventually the trucks, picking bins and vineyard lights signal the arrival of harvest.

This year, those lights came on remarkably early.

Many Sonoma County wineries began picking grapes in late July, particularly Chardonnay and Pinot Noir destined for sparkling wine, along with some early-ripening white varieties. Yesterday, our friends at Iron Horse Vineyards in Sebastopol told us that they already have approximately 75% of their fruit harvested—and today is only August 18.

For some perspective, Iron Horse’s 2025 harvest began on August 12 with Pinot Noir for sparkling wine and finished September 12. This year, they’re already three-quarters of the way through by mid-August.

Pinot Gris in Anderson Valley, getting close!

So, How Does a Winemaker Know When to Pick?

Harvest isn’t simply about looking at a calendar. As grapes approach maturity, growers and winemakers are constantly walking the vineyards, tasting berries and measuring what’s happening inside them.

One of the numbers you’ll hear most often during harvest is Brix (°Bx).

Brix is essentially a measurement of the concentration of sugar in grape juice. As grapes ripen, their sugar levels generally rise while their acidity declines. Because yeast converts that sugar into alcohol during fermentation, Brix also gives winemakers an indication of the potential alcohol level of the finished wine.

But there’s no single magic Brix number.

Grapes for sparkling wine are generally picked earlier, when sugars are lower and acidity is still bright and lively. Grapes intended for still white and red wines are typically allowed to ripen longer. Depending on the grape, vineyard, wine style and vintage, still-wine grapes might be harvested somewhere in the neighborhood of the low-to-mid 20s Brix.

And sugar is only part of the equation.

Winemakers are also watching pH and titratable acidity (TA), tasting for flavor development, examining seed and skin maturity, and looking at the overall health of the fruit. UC Davis teaches harvest decisions as a combination of sugar accumulation, organic-acid changes, flavor and aroma development, phenolics and sensory evaluation—not simply reaching a predetermined sugar number.

The desired style of wine matters enormously. Pick earlier and you can preserve freshness, acidity and lower potential alcohol. Wait longer and you may gain richer fruit flavors, softer acidity and greater concentration—but potentially at the cost of higher alcohol and less freshness.

Then Mother Nature gets a vote.

A coming heat wave can push sugar levels up quickly. Rain can bring the threat of dilution, mildew or rot. Vineyard exposure, fog, soil, irrigation and even differences within individual vineyard blocks can all affect the decision. Sometimes a winemaker who thought they had another week suddenly decides: We’re picking tomorrow morning.

That’s part of what makes harvest such an exciting time to be in Sonoma County. For all of the science and technology available today, wine is still an agricultural product, and every vintage tells the story of a particular growing season.

Come See Harvest in Action!

August and September are some of our favorite months to explore Sonoma wine country with guests of Howling Sonoma Experiences.

There’s an energy in the vineyards that you simply don’t experience at other times of year—crews picking in the early morning, bins of freshly harvested grapes arriving at wineries, presses running and the unmistakable smell of fermentation beginning to fill the cellar.

And with the 2026 harvest arriving earlier than we’ve ever seen in our 26 years here, now is an especially interesting time to visit.

If you’re planning a trip to Sonoma, we’d love to design a private day around the wineries, wines, food and scenery that interest you most.

Come experience harvest with us.

Howling Sonoma Experiences

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