10/12/2026
Harvest ends with a bang or a fizzle. The final week of picking comes either with an ecstatic push of idyllic fruit or a frantic scramble of lugs and shears before impending rain soaks the soil. Each year, the last blocks are the easiest to vinify or the hardest, exactly what we hoped for or not even close.
An April frost crippled much of the East Coast’s production, Virginia in particular, and we’ve been reacting to the loss all season. As we complete our final pick, WFW yields are above what was expected after the frost. Higher-elevation sites like Bethany Ridge, Russ Mountain, and Hickory Wind did well. We’re short on crucial varietals like Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier, but others — Albarino, Chenin Blanc, Merlot, and Cab Franc — are spot on, some providing their best crops in years. In the grand scheme, our savior was altitude.
Farming was difficult in early summer, and September brought unexpectedly overcast, drizzly days that challenged fruit maturity in our reds. Fortunately, Merlot and Tannat came in beautifully, and late-season fruit has been fresh, clean, and expressive.
Currently, 73 unique lots bubble away in our cellar. Some are single barrels while others are full tanks. It smells exquisite.
It’s unreasonable how much I love harvest. The mornings, the smells, the logistics, the craziness, the unknown. I love the massive amount of dedication of so many individuals. I love the aromatics exploding from pumpovers and the music of bubblers bursting in the barrel room. I love how hard it is — a marathon that starts with pruning to shoot thinning to scouting to hedging to sampling to picking to crushing to fermenting to aging to blending to bottling, et cetera. It’s the kind of work where the body aches in pleasure.
This season has been one of our more difficult vintages in the past decade. Despite this, it’s a testament to the sites we’re fortunate to farm on the Blue Ridge and Catoctin Mountains and to a team I’m honored to work alongside. We’ve got some of our finest future w**es fermenting away. It certainly wasn’t easy getting them there. 🍷 Read the full harvest recap from Nate on our blog.
