At the beginning of the year, an unprecedented heat wave swept across California, transforming winter into summer in January, escalating over the months of February and March. People hit the beaches as temperatures in the Salinas Valley reached as high as 94 degrees Fahrenheit, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Sabrine Rodems, founder of Scratch Wines, a winery in Soledad, and winemaker at Wrath Wines, noticed something interesting happening with her grapes. Bud break – the glorious moment when buds on the vine open to push out a green shoot – came early. Typically, bud break happens sometime in the spring, marking the beginning of the vine’s annual growth cycle.
“By the Fourth of July, we usually have color on the grapes. This year, the grapes start turning color in June,” Rodems says. “That warming in February, March just kicked everything off.”
Sauvignon Blanc, typically picked around Labor Day, was harvested a week or two earlier this year. Pinot Noir, usually picked in the second or third week of September, was picked at the end of August.
By October, winemakers are typically harvesting Syrah, Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, those varieties are already fully harvested; now she and her crew are focused on cleanup.
Across Monterey County – and much of California – winemakers experienced a similar shift.The heat wave came and went, triggeredvines to start producing and set off a domino effect that pushed harvest earlier.
The impacts varied by region, with Carmel Valley generally less affected. The extent to which each winemaker was impacted depended in part on how prepared they were for an early start.
For Denis Hoey, winemaker at Odonata Wines in the Salinas Valley, harvest started nearly a month earlier than in 2025, with the first picking occurring on July 23. Hoey says it was the earliest first picking in his more than two decades working in the business, the timing of which unexpectedly overlapped with bottling of previous vintages, which began July 26.
“I knew it was going to be early, but not that early,” Hoey says, adding that his workforce is just him and one other. “I was stressing about it, but it ended up working out OK.”
Logistically, early harvest was a juggling act. Winemakers like Hoey had to balance picking grapes with preparing, filtering and bottling their mature wines, all while giving each process the attention it demanded.
Fortunately, environmental conditions throughout the year favored grape quality. Many quote the hang time – the amount of time a grape spends on the vine – as an indicator of quality, particularly for varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon, where grapes may need to develop tannins.
Both Hoey and Rodems emphasize that this year’s early harvest didn’t necessarily mean shorter hang time, just a growth cycle shifted forward.
“We had bud break early,” Hoey says. “The sheer timing doesn’t change from bud break to flowering to veraison, we’re talking like maybe a week differential.”
Hang time alone isn’t sufficient to explain wine quality, and winemakers collect all kinds of data through a combination of lab measurements and tasting to get an idea for how the grape is maturing. The pH is measured to assess acidity; “Brix” is the measuring of the percentage of sugar by weight. Winemakers use this to check ripeness and get a sense for what might be their final alcohol percentage.
But there is a less scientific measure.
“After 23 years of making wine, I put [the grapes] in my mouth. That’s the best indicator of ripeness,” Rodems says. “I thought ’21 and ’23 were great… I think ’26 is going to be an exceptional harvest.”
While the early heat wave accelerated the growing cycle, conditions throughout the rest of the year, especially nighttime temperatures and disease and pest pressures, have made for what, by all indications so far, appears to be a successful year.
Hoey says that the day-to-night temperature swings were smaller this year, even with the early heat wave. While his garden saw more pests, he saw a much cleaner vintage than usual. He thinks the lower disease pressure might benefit quality, but that it’s too soon to judge all the wines. Heavier reds, he says, are “yet to be written.”