Let’s face it: We barely had a winter. January was warm and dry, and after a few storms in February, summerlike heat arrived in March, driving some grape varieties to early flowering.
Then, winter returned for a brief April interlude, to be followed by an intermittently toasty and foggy May. June was all gloom on the coast and warmth inland. Then came July, and the heat returned. Nobody should be surprised at the premature arrival of grape harvest 2026, especially in the warmer inland areas.
On July 21, local viticulture consultant Ken Swegles grower Richard Hanke (formerly of Left Bend) and winemaker Sam Smith brought in chardonnay for sparkling from Redwood Grade Vineyard, located on the flanks of Mount Madonna overlooking the Monterey Bay. It was the earliest they’d ever begun a harvest.
According to Swegles, who is known for planting and caretaking Ascona Vineyard on Skyline and Gist, he has already harvested chardonnay from the old Peter Martin Ray vineyard in Saratoga.
Testarossa just brought its first grapes of the 2026 vintage on Monday, July 27. “This is our earliest harvest I can remember,” said Testarossa winemaker Bill Brosseau. “Amazing acidity. Just perfect!”
The chardonnay fruit came from the Brosseau Vineyard in the Chalone AVA, planted by his parents, Jon and Jan, beginning in 1980. The family began selling grapes from Brosseau Vineyard to prestigious wineries in 1995, and Brosseau began making wines under his own label from the family grapes in 2005.
“I do remember Chalone Vineyard used to harvest in July when they didn’t have sufficient water up on the hill,” says Brosseau.
Chalone, established by Dick Graff, was able to get water and electricity in the 1990s, and shared their bounty with their neighbors. Brosseau farms 42 acres of grapes in the Monterey Bay vineyard, including chardonnay and pinot noir that is sold to Testarossa, as well as Chenin Blanc, Grenache and syrah which get sold to a variety of small labels, including Sonoma’s Extradimensional Wine by Hardy Wallace. Brosseau picked Chenin Blanc for Wallace on Thursday, July 23.
Brosseau picked pinot noir for his label over the first weekend in August, and expected to pick pinot noir from the family vineyard for Testarossa on Thursday, Aug. 6.
Up on Summit Road, Dan Lokteff, owner/winemaker at Wrights Station, expects to begin harvesting his estate pinot noir around Aug. 29, but he says that Lago Lomita Pinot Gris up the road from him might come in ahead of that.
Dave Moulton of Burrell School Vineyards says pinot noir is rapidly accelerating toward ripeness. He said he expected to harvest within two weeks, which would make it the earliest he’s ever seen. “The previous early harvest for us was Aug. 25,” Moulton added.
Dan Petrocchi of 3P Vineyards (with a tasting room in San Carlos and an estate vineyard in Soquel), expected to begin bringing in pinot noir Aug. 7 from Wilder Vineyard off Loma Prieta Avenue in the Summit area. Owner Kate Emmett Wilder added her voice to wine industry veterans who’ve “never seen a harvest this early.”
Petrocchi will also be sourcing pinot noir from the Evans Vineyard, Mindego Ridge off Skyline on Alpine Road, and Luchessi cabernet sauvignon from Saratoga. He was still trying to source some sauvignon blanc locally, but might resort to buying from out of the AVA. His estate pinot noir in Soquel, across from Casalegno’s Market, historically gets picked last.
Just up Loma Prieta Avenue from Wilder Vineyard is Lago Lomita Vineyards, with a sweeping view of the Monterey Bay. “We’ll start picking the pinot grigio in about four weeks,” said owner Mark Porter. “It will be a very low yield: weird year. The only varietals that are doing well are the cab franc and cab sauvignon, since they budded and bloomed later than the rest.” He expects a very light crop for pinot noir, but a decent one for the Bordeaux varieties.
Sharing the same hilltop ridge with Lago Lomita but facing more east than west, Muns Vineyard is just undergoing veraison, the process where red grapes turn from hard green to pliable purple. Sales and Marketing Manager Mary Lindsay says that at their altitude—about 2,600 feet—they have had a different experience than vineyards along Summit Road, at about 1,800 feet.
“We have a few pinot clusters that are totally purple, but these few are outliers,” says Lindsay, emphasizing the uneven nature of the crop. She said they were on track to hit veraison in early August. “We expect harvest at the normal timeframe: early September for pinot and maybe late September for syrah, depending on weather this fall.”
Brent Harrison, assistant winemaker for Marty Mathis’ Kathryn Kennedy and M. Mathis Winegrower labels, said he picked godello grapes from Saratoga on the next to last day of July. Utterly gorgeous in their firm green fleshiness, they were just giving way to full ripeness, but he wanted them with great acid. This is the first godello he is making under his own label, Wine From Brent. Mathis has been making it for several years.
Mathis expected to harvest estate albarino on Aug. 7 from his vineyard property in Saratoga for his M. Mathis Winegrower label. He was set to pick sauvignon blanc and friuilano (an Italian white grape that originated in the Friuli), on July 31 from the Imperial Vineyard next to the Cal Fire Helitac site on the Lexington Reservoir.
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