Off to the Races: Napa Valley’s 2025 Harvest Begins
By Tim Carl
Summary: On Aug. 14, 2025, Matthiasson Wines led one of Napa Valley’s first picks of the season, harvesting chardonnay for sparkling and peach wines. Cool, steady weather has vintners anticipating balanced fruit with elevated acidity and strong aging potential. As harvest ramps up across the valley, winemakers are balancing traditional rhythms with shifting consumer trends and market pressures.
Off to the Races: Napa Valley’s 2025 Harvest Begins
By Tim Carl
NAPA VALLEY, Calif. — At first light Thursday, dew-beaded vine rows in Napa Valley glinted under quick flashes of harvest clippers. At Matthiasson Wines in the West Oak Knoll area, co-owners Steve and Jill Matthiasson stood side by side as their crew worked in steady rhythm, kicking off the winery’s first pick of the season. Bin after bin of chardonnay rolled in — the year’s inaugural fruit for the family-run operation and one of the earliest signals that the 2025 harvest was underway.
“We picked chardonnay from the Linda Vista Vineyard this morning for our peach wine and sparkling wine — first harvest of the year,” Steve said. “It’s been a perfect, mild season. No major heat spikes, no wild-fire smoke, super consistent. The acid is incredible, the flavors are incredible and the vines are healthy. I think it’s going to be amazing.”
For Steve, harvest isn’t just another phase of the year.
“It’s the beginning of the funnest part,” he said. “The rest of the year you’re juggling farming, bottling, sales, visitors, running the business. During harvest, everything else fades away. You just focus. You work side by side with the crew, solve problems, and at the end of the day you share a beer together. One of life’s great pleasures is accomplishing something as a team.”
A Toast to Begin
Before the first bins were hauled away, Steve gathered the vineyard crew, cellar team and tasting room staff for a toast. He thanked them for their work, wished for the best wine possible and reminded everyone to stay safe. Most of the people standing there had worked together for years, some for decades.
“We waited for the vineyard crew to be here,” Steve said. “It’s all one team. We’ve got families counting on us, and there’s pride in starting the vintage together.”
That team includes vineyard manager Francisco Vega, who has been farming Napa vines for more than 40 years, most of them at Laird Family Estate and Ehlers Estate before joining the Matthiassons a year and a half ago.
“For me, the first harvest day is exciting,” Vega said. “It’s what I’ve been working toward all year. Once the fruit is in the winery, I can relax a little because my responsibility outside is done.”
Vega said this year’s chardonnay looked better than expected.
“The weather helped — no extreme heat, so the sugar came up slowly and evenly. No mildew problems, either. That’s great for this block.”
Assistant winemaker JJ Naab, in his fifth harvest with Matthiasson, called it “opening night” for the year’s work.
“You wait all year and you get one shot,” he said. “You don’t sleep the night before. It’s exciting, and you’ve got to make it count.”
The Fruit and the Craft
This first pick is destined for two wines: a méthode traditionnelle sparkling chardonnay and a low-alcohol sparkling peach wine the Matthiassons created in 2020 as a COVID-era pivot when restaurants stopped buying their fruit. The peaches come from their orchards on Big Ranch Road.
“We crush the peaches and add them into the press after the chardonnay,” Jill explained. “It’s about 9% alcohol, lightly sparkling, with real peach and chardonnay flavors. We sell it fresh — a perfect brunch wine.”
Harvesting sparkling wine fruit means picking early, when acid is high and sugars are lower. For the Matthiassons, it’s an intentional choice that sets the tone for the rest of the season.
“We like the hang time without a ton of sugar ripening,” Naab said. “This year’s long, cool season should give us balanced fruit and preserve that freshness.”
The Valley Joins In
Across Napa Valley, harvest is stirring to life. According to the Napa Valley Vintners, the first grapes — pinot noir for sparkling wine from Yountville and chardonnay from Rutherford — were picked on Aug. 8. Four days later, pinot grigio from St. Helena came in, marking the earliest pre–Aug. 15 pick in Benessere Vineyards’ history. Sauvignon blanc is now being harvested in Rutherford, Pope Valley, Napa, Gordon Valley and the Napa side of Carneros, with Schramsberg’s sparkling harvest set to begin Aug. 18.
At Honig Vineyard & Winery in Rutherford, crews will be in the vineyard tomorrow, Aug. 15, to pick sauvignon blanc.
“We are very excited to start our 46th harvest here at our property in Rutherford,” president Michael Honig said. “It’s been a colder summer, and we’re seeing some mildew pressure in the reds, but with this warm weather, things are looking better and better every day.”
Aaron Pott of Blackbird Vineyards noted the season’s defining coolness.
“The cold Pacific Ocean has brought the marine layer inland all summer,” he said. “It’s the coldest summer since 1999.”
Many believe that slow, steady ripening could produce a drawn-out harvest with vibrant acidity and balanced fruit.
A Rhythm Older Than the Market
For Steve Matthiasson, the significance of harvest stretches far beyond weather patterns or market pressures. This summer, he stood on terraces in Austria’s Wachau region that have been farmed for over a thousand years.
“Through wars, upheavals — everything — people have been making wine there,” he said. “Harvest connects us to that. It’s a rhythm that has carried on for thousands of years. No matter how crazy the world is, this drumbeat persists. I have to believe it will be resilient going forward.”
It’s a grounding perspective in a wine market facing shifts in consumer habits, with fewer Americans drinking alcohol and more choosing lower-alcohol options — a trend that suits the Matthiassons’ style.
“We always have to adjust,” Jill said. “That’s farming. But lower-alcohol wines are what a lot of people want, so we’re in a good spot.”
A Vineyard in Contrast
Later that morning, Jill walked to the top of their Phoenix Vineyard, where it meets a neighboring parcel. The two sections were planted at the same time and once formed a single vineyard. The Matthiassons took over their side in 2017, converting to organic farming, planting cover crops and rebuilding soil health. The other side is still farmed conventionally, using herbicides and synthetic pesticides.
“The soil over there is completely dead,” Jill said, pointing toward pale, sparsely leaved vines. “You can see how short the shoots are compared to our lush, dark- green shoots. The yield is a fraction of ours. In the fall, our vines will keep their leaves for weeks longer, while those will drop early because they don’t have the energy to keep going. These poor plants are just suffering.”
It’s a living demonstration of how farming choices ripple through a vineyard’s health, resilience and quality of fruit.
The Main Show Begins
By midmorning, the chardonnay from Linda Vista was on its way to the winery. The crew packed up, the vineyard fell quiet and the day’s work shifted to the cellar. In a few weeks, more varieties will join the crush — viognier by mid-September, chardonnay soon after, then early reds like pinot noir and syrah. Cabernet sauvignon will hold out until late September or October, if the weather allows.
But for now, this was the opening scene in Napa Valley’s main act — the moment the valley waits for all year. It’s a time when every winery, from small family estates to large corporate brands, turns its attention to the fruit. The air will soon carry the scent of fermenting juice. Forklifts will shuttle barrels into place. And in the background, that ancient drumbeat will keep time.
“This is why we’re here,” Naab said. “We get to do this once a year, and every time it’s different. You’ve got to love it.”
Early 2025 Napa Valley Harvest at a Glance
Aug. 8 – Mumm Napa picks pinot noir (Yountville) and Round Pond Estate picks chardonnay (Rutherford) for sparkling wine.
Aug. 11 – Pinot noir from Truchard Vineyard (Carneros) harvested for rosé by The Vice.
Aug. 12 – Benessere Vineyards (St. Helena) brings in pinot grigio — earliest pre–Aug. 15 pick on record for the winery.
Aug. 14 – Sauvignon blanc picked in Pope Valley and Gordon Valley (Inglenook, St. Supéry). Matthiasson Wines harvests chardonnay from Linda Vista Vineyard (Napa) for sparkling and peach wine.
Aug. 15 (planned) – Sauvignon blanc harvest at Honig Vineyard & Winery (Rutherford).
Aug. 18 (planned) – Schramsberg begins sparkling harvest.
Coming weeks – Viognier expected by mid-September; chardonnay soon after; early reds such as pinot noir and syrah in late September; cabernet sauvignon into October, weather permitting.
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Tim Carl is a Napa Valley-based photojournalist.
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