Inside the 2026 Harvest
4 min read
Santa Lucia Highlands Growers on an Early, Unhurried Season
Some excerpts of this article are from a Live 2026 Harvest Update from the Santa Lucia Highlands with growers and winemakers Adam Franscioni, Adam Lee, Morét Brealynn Chavez, and Steve McIntyre on Thursday, August 20, 2026. Watch the full recording.
2026 Santa Lucia Highlands Harvest UPdate
The Earliest Harvest that Wasn't Racing Anywhere
The 2026 harvest in the Santa Lucia Highlands started with growers pulling grapes and taking sugar samples in July, something that has not happened before, not in Adam Franscioni's nine years farming Rosella's, Gary's, WindRock, Sierra Mar, and Soberanes Vineyards, not in anyone else's memory on a late August Santa Lucia Highlands wine harvest update Zoom hosted by Santa Lucia Highlands Wine Artisans.
The pattern is not just local. Steve McIntyre of McIntyre Vineyards, now in his 43rd harvest in the Highlands, pointed to Burgundy's earliest harvest date in 500 years as evidence the whole northern hemisphere ran early this year.
Caraccioli Cellars started picking for sparkling wine on July 22, the earliest start in the winery's twenty-one years. General Manager Scott Caraccioli says he could not be happier with what has come in so far from his Escolle Vineyard. "The quality on those early picks has been outstanding," he said, "and our 2026 Chardonnay is showing the same promise."
But early does not mean rushed, and that distinction is the story of the 2026 harvest here.
2026 Winegrape Harvest at McIntyre Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands
McIntyre described a season defined by unusually consistent cool weather at the coast. Gonzales hit 90 degrees exactly once all summer. Most days sat at 73 or 74 degrees, numbers so steady he checked his thermometer for a malfunction. Thirty miles south of the Santa Lucia Highlands, in southern Monterey County and further south to Paso Robles, temperatures climbed to 95 to 100 degrees on those same days.
That gap between the coast and the inland explains why cool-climate Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Santa Lucia Highlands can start early and still take their time. Long summer daylight paired with consistently cool air lets grapes develop flavor, tannin, and acid balance without a sprint to the finish line.
Quick Start turns to Unhurried Pace
Morét Brealynn felt that firsthand. Crafting a Rosé of Pinot Noir sourced from Highlands Ranch Vineyard, plus new Pinot Noir from WindRock and a vineyard McIntyre farms for her label, Morét Brealynn Wines, she watched her Sonoma County fruit come in ahead of schedule and assumed she would finally beat her Santa Lucia Highlands grapes to the crush pad. She did not.
"The Santa Lucia Highlands still finds a way to slow down the hang time," she said, "and let that fruit mature for an extra two, three weeks." Her Rosé block came in on August 13, roughly a month earlier than her prior two vintages, but the region still delivered the extended ripening window it is known for. It just moved the whole calendar up.
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Chardonnay Comes In First
Something else broke from tradition this year. Pinot Noir almost always leads harvest in the Santa Lucia Highlands, with Chardonnay following weeks later. In the 2026 harvest, Chardonnay came in first. Franscioni, who also farms for his family’s ROAR Wines, tracked weekly Brix samples across four vintages to show why.
In 2023 and 2024, sugar accumulation spiked sharply around Memorial Day, a historically hot stretch across California that forces growers into early, compressed picks. In both 2025 and 2026, Brix climbed steadily before leveling off, giving growers room to choose their picking dates rather than react to a heat event.
Adam Lee, winemaker at Clarice Wine Company and thirty-three vintages into his career, put it simply: the mellow August weather is evening the season out. What looked like an alarmingly early to the 2026 harvest season start back in April now reads as a normal, even generous, hang time once the numbers settle.
Fires at the Coast Have No Effect on Grape Quality
The season has not been without concern. Two fires burned in Big Sur this summer, but smoke did not reach inland to the Santa Lucia Highlands.
McIntyre, drawing on four decades of fire seasons, including one in the same region back in 2016 that also did not affect the Santa Lucia Highlands, explained the mechanism. "Smoke gets trapped above the marine inversion layer that defines the region's climate and blows out every afternoon," he said. "It's the same wind pattern that cools the vines all summer." It is a protective effect built into the geography that makes the fruit what it is.
Smaller Yields, Concentrated Flavors
Crop levels were trending average to down 10 to 20 percent, though growers were still assessing as harvest continued into early September. During the week leading up to Labor Day, Grower Gary Franscioni of ROAR WInes and Garys’, Soberanes, Rosella’s, Sierra Mar and WindRock Vineyards said that in some areas, yields were down up to 40 percent.
Harvest is a lot of work compressed into a short window, and growers and winemakers are ready for it. They had months to see the early start coming and are also watching the forecast for heavy El Niño rains this winter, wondering if that is another benefit of an early year.
In 2026, most growers were wrapping up picking by the second week of September, including Syrah, a typically late variety that is usually harvested in October.
By all reports, for a vintage that started a month early, the Santa Lucia Highlands 2026 harvest is shaping up to be worth the wait.
