Blocks 3a and 3b, the Phase II blocks at our vineyard in Eagle Point, Oregon, were machine harvested on September 9, 2026. The scale tickets show 19.1 tons of clone 02A (Wädenswil) from 3a and 11.2 tons of Dijon 667 from 3b, our largest pick of the harvest.
Our Pellenc harvester was at the end of the rows at sunrise. A photo at 6:39 a.m. shows a ripe cluster hanging over the drip line, and one at 8:54 shows a bin of whole clusters.
The other picks
Some of our Pinot Noir came off by hand and some with the Pellenc. The other picks:
August 31: about 11 tons, by hand
September 1: Block 1A Pommard, 4.9 tons, plus one bin from Block 1B, by hand
September 8: Block 2A Pommard, 2.5 tons, by hand
September 11: Block 2B Dijon 777, 12.9 tons, by hand
With September 9, that comes to about 62 tons.
A cool September
Rain on September 2 brought 0.8 inch to the Medford airport, between our September 1 and September 8 picks. It was the airport’s coolest September of the eight seasons since 2019. By September 9 our site’s modeled heat total was about 8% above its long-term average for that day.
Wine at the ranch
We kept some of the 2026 grapes at the ranch to make wine here; our first in-house sparkling wine comes from this harvest.
