Completing The Harvest
We finished up the 2025 season with two harvests of Cabernet Sauvignon on back to back Sundays.
As in years prior, the upper blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon tend to ripen a bit faster than the lower blocks. In this case, the upper blocks were ready for the pick on October 5th. The taste of the fruit and the sugar content of the grapes were in agreement with each other and confirmed the decision on the day to pick. Volunteers showed up in the early hours and we were picking by 7am.
An overcast early morning helped keep both grapes and harvest crew cool. By the time the pick was nearing completion, we were all feeling the fatigue of harvesting by hand and the sun eventually broke through for some gorgeous weather to finish the pick by. The two upper blocks of Cabernet Sauvignon yielded about three and there quarter tons of fruit which was a bit more than last year. As of the 12th, the fruit is already well into fermentation and our winemaker, Adam Comartin, is quite pleased with the quality of the fruit.
Harvesting Cabernet Sauvignon in Block Seven.
Bins full of Cab being kept cool out of the sun until it was time to process the fruit.
Beautiful clusters of Cabernet Sauvignon. The lighting in this picture gave the fruit a particular deep blue look. Don’t worry, those brown leaves get sorted out.
We had initially planned on a two week interval between the upper blocks of Cabernet being harvested (blocks 5 and7) and the lower blocks. Not that the lower blocks needed a full two weeks to finish ripening but rather to account for the logistics and relief for our volunteer harvest crew.
That didn’t happen.
The surprise threat of significant rain on October 13th forced our hand and we sent out the call for help for a pick on the 11th of October. We were so relieved that we had a strong turnout of friends and family and we picked a bit under three tons of fruit. For context, a ton of grapes makes about six hundred bottles of wine.
It was a blessing to have a cool morning to start the pick of block 3. While the clouds were picturesque, they were a bit of a foreshadow of things to come.
Beautiful clusters of Cabernet Sauvignon ready for harvest!
We were relieved to have completed the 2025 harvest just in time. We had debated as to whether to pick the fruit prior to or after the rains of October 13th but we were glad we got it ahead of time given the amount of rain we had. The pressure wasn’t that the fruit would absorb too much water but rather that we would not have enough of a breeze combined with sunny days afterwards to dry out the fruit and ensure that we wouldn’t experience bunch rot which could compromise the entire harvest.
We’re so grateful for all of the help with harvest both from family and friends but also to our professional support of Alesia Vineyard Management and our winemaker, Adam Comartin. We couldn’t do this without help from all of you! Let us know if you would like to participate in harvest next year!