Our 40th Harvest Report

Carneros tends to run a little ahead of the rest of Napa valley to begin with, because we farm early ripening varieties in a cooler region , and with so much of our fruit destined for sparkling wine, we're often among the first to pick each year. This year, that head start turned into a sprint. The sparkling base wines and white varietals came in fast in Carneros. "Everyone was going early," Michaella recalls. "It's an early, early, early harvest."

We began as we usually do, by picking each night, a practice that keeps grapes cool as they arrive at the crush pad, preserving their delicate flavors and aromatics before the sun has a chance to heat them up.

Then the pace changed. The vineyards paused, and Pinot Noir took its time creeping toward ripeness, settling into something closer to a normal season's rhythm.

"You're going to see a very early, short, early-varietal harvest across Napa," Michaella explains, "but not necessarily as early as you'd expect once you get into everything else, including Pinot Noir. It's still early, because we were on an early trajectory, but not quite as early."

While Carneros' sparkling and Pinot vineyards were already deep into harvest, the Cabernet and Bordeaux-variety growers were still waiting — some for weeks longer. "The Cabernet growers are still waiting it out," Zak notes.

As Michaella explained, one often-overlooked effect of an early harvest is what's happening below ground. "Generally, your soil nitrogen is really high," she said. "If you're later in the season, the vine is taking up more and more nutrients, and the vine kind of runs out by the end. But with an early harvest, there's just more nutrients available in the soil for uptake."

The result this year: notably clean fermentations and fruit that's showing exceptional flavor and aromatic expression — especially in the Pinot Noir. "The Pinots are just amazing this year," Michaella says.

This year's cellar crew was almost entirely a returning team, a rarity in an industry where turnover is the norm and aspiring winemakers try to gain experience by working as many harvests with different producers as they can.

"We had an awesome cellar crew this harvest," Michaella says. "Everyone on our cellar this year is a returning person." That continuity matters more than it might seem. "You have people who know how to rack, who know how to inoculate, who know the flow," Zak adds. "You're synced." In a compressed, early-moving season like this one, having a team that didn't need to relearn the choreography made all the difference in the fruit's final quality, and made it more fun for everyone!

Left to right: Michaella Goldner, Associate Winemaker; Zak Miller, Winemaker; Ulises Navarrete, Enologist

Even with such an early start, the season isn't over. As the last of the fruit continues coming in from our estate vineyards, the winemakers have begun the blending process.

The 2026 vintage will be remembered as the earliest ever: a sprint at the start, a pause in the middle, made possible by a cellar team that made a record-early, unusual season fun.

Many people in Napa are describing this as a historic vintage, and it certainly will be for us, as it's our 40th harvest, and we are heading into the château's 40th anniversary next year.