Vintage 2026: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera Harvest

We are coming to the end of the harvest season. On November 1, our friends came to help us harvest our red varieties. There was frost on the ground when we began with the net raising at 8 a.m. but that went smoothly and we began harvesting around 9:30. We only have 2 rows each of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Barbera so the harvest went very quickly because the reds remained disease free and unlike the white varieties they are definitely distinguishable from the grape leaves.

We began by harvesting the Cabernet Sauvignon followed by the Barbera. Our reason for doing it this way is because the Cabernet Sauvignon and the Cabernet Franc grapes look virtually identical. The Barbera, however is a very different looking grape so having that between the two Cabernets seemed a good way to distinguish the two varieties. The harvest went into the rental truck.

It turned out to be a beautiful day and we took a break for lunch. As is customary, when we can, we like to provide our harvesters with a wine made from the variety that was harvested. On this day, we shared the 2025 Barbera which we bottled the day before!

On Monday, we took our harvest to Stonington Vineyards where Mike, Jim and Dakota were waiting for us. We also were lucky enough to be able to borrow three half ton bins from Jonathan Edwards. We wanted our red grapes destemmed by not crushed so Mike configured their destemmer to accommodate us.

What would have taken us an entire day to do was accomplished in less than an hour. We brought the destemmed grapes back to our Taugwonk Spur location and took the Brix reading for the harvest by hydrometry.

Variety	Harvest Date	Brix	pH	TA g/L	Lbs	Gals
Cabernet Sauvignon	November 1, 2026	22.0	3.23	8.4 g/L	625	50
Cabernet Franc	November 1, 2026	24.7	3.30	10.9 g/L	500	40
Barbera	November 1, 2026	23.0	3.07	12.9 g/L	188	15

Again, our heartfelt thank you to all of our friends who gave up their Sundays to help us harvest our grapes. Also, thank you to Jonathan Edwards, Mike, Jim and Dakota! We are lucky to have friends in the business who are so willing to give us a hand!