Harvest 2026
We finished our 2026 harvest on October 2 by picking the Skyward Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. (Some pictures below.) This was our 20th harvest here at Calluna Vineyards, and it was quite an anomaly!
This was an historically early harvest for us – usually Skyward is harvested in the last days of October. Additionally, it was a very light harvest. Crop set was low for everyone in our region, but Calluna seemed to have one of the most extreme cases. We harvested only 21.4 tons this year vs 70.8 tons last year, so, down around 70%. That is really unusual, since our vineyard has been such a reliable producer over the years, and while the small crop is odd, the vineyard will almost certainly be back at normal production levels next year.
There were two main reasons for the vineyards’ low yield this year. First, there was significant heat in March which kicked off the vines vegetative cycle early. When the vine starts early, it almost always leads to an early finish, but it also means that the vine is exposed to some of the hazards of early Spring – like frost or rain and cool weather when the vine is trying to set fruit (ie, pollinate). Then we did get an unusual amount of rain in April which was spread over many days, so the fruit set was small. When that happens, the vine can more quickly ripen the lower fruit load, making the already early harvest even earlier.
Having said all that, it was a relatively cool and beautiful growing season after that March and April period. While much of our country and Europe were sweltering, we had moderate weather, so everyone is talking about high quality and I, too, think our potential for this vintage is really good!
And while the grape harvest was very light, we did have a beautiful year with tomatoes, and perhaps most satisfying, I grew the most perfect basil plant of my life:
On the Wedding Front
Readers will remember that two of our three children are getting married this year! Peter’s wedding in July, right on our vineyard property, went beautifully. The weather cooperated with a warm, but not too hot, late afternoon.
Getting so many people up our narrow drive to the top of the hill is difficult, but Peter and Maile did nearly all the planning and took care of this by hiring shuttles. The one potentially huge glitch occurred at the end of the evening when the Wedding Coordinator came out and informed me that she just “wants me to know that the early shuttle left but when crossing our little bridge and going up the hill, it broke down and is now blocking all traffic on our road.” This registered with me as a potential catastrophe because we had all the other shuttles and about 30 cars getting ready to go down the hill in about 20 minutes! With that first shuttle blocking the road and towing services likely difficult to find late on Saturday, we might all be stuck. So, I changed out of my suit and hopped on my ATV to investigate. Fortunately, the shuttle somehow backed itself down over the little bridge and into a turn out, no longer blocking the road. That was a difficult move but it fixed the problem. Everyone exited successfully, most heading to the after party in Healdsburg.
**INSERT WEDDING PICTURE FROM DAVID**
Amy’s wedding to Jacob is coming at the end of October, but that one is in New York City, and they are handling most of the details. All I have to do is work on getting the right Calluna wines to the Friday and Saturday venues!
Winemaker Dinners
We have continued our run of successful Winemaker Dinners. One at the new Appellation Healdsburg resort, another at the Penn Club in NYC, and one of the most interesting in Healdsburg at Dry Creek Kitchen, where our wines were featured for the collaborative work of Chef Shane McAnelly, cooking with Taylor Montgomery of Montgomery Sky Farm, which is located outside Asheville, North Carolina. Taylor had just won a James Beard Award himself, for Best Chef Southeast, so it was a great evening.
All our wines showed beautifully, as they always do when flattered by this high-quality fare.
We have more dinners going into the schedule for 2027 and we will try to highlight those in our regular Calluna email alerts as we go forward. I hope you can join us for an event, and if you want to host an event at your home or club, please let me know and we can talk through how to make that work.
Until next time…
Cheers,
David Jeffrey
Founder & Winemaker
