At Naked, taking you inside the winery is kind of our thing. But this month, we’re going further and bringing you all the action from the frontlines of winemaking: the picking, pressing and tasting at 4am, the well-earned rewards at the end of the day, and the giant blow-outs at the end of the season.
Make yourself comfortable.
That's a wrap!
Done, finito, fini. Our live harvest coverage is over for this year and the next vintage of your favourite wine is one step closer to your glass.
And what a journey it’s been – from Franc’s surprise hailstorm just as the first crop arrived at the winery, to Katie’s rage against the machines (hint: a heatwave got in the wires) – harvest has a way of always bringing something new to the table. You never know what you’re in for.
So thanks for coming along on the journey. Your winemakers have worked their behinds off these past few weeks and it’s fair to say they deserve a bit of downtime.
But not just yet.
There’s still work to be done, and even though our live coverage ends here, there’s plenty more to come on our socials.
Head over to our TikTok or check out our Instagram to get the final squeeze of harvest.
It’s about to get juicy.
Did anyone order a wake-up call?
We may all be happily snoozing away in the early morning hours, but Rudy is up and at em – happily harvesting the grapes for his Diamond Mountain District Cabernet.
Read on to see why Rudy’s team is up with the early birds
Lights, camera, secateurs!
In some ways, harvest is a lot like shooting a movie – exotic locations, early starts, long days, big technical kit, a crew coming together to work on something that can take months or years to refine and perfect.
In many other ways, it’s absolutely nothing like a movie. Hair and make-up tends not to be on the agenda, and our winemakers do all their own stunts – no visual effects required.
But that does not mean harvest is not screen-worthy. Far from it. The Naked team (shout out to Roni at Naked’s Sonoma winery) has been diligently documenting as many vineyard walks, sugar tests, picks and presses as her iPhone storage can handle.
Head over to our TikTok or Instagram feeds to see winemaker dispatches from California. Highly recommended for fans of wine, heavy duty machinery and dry ice – if you know, you know.
An unexpected journey for Mick
Did we mention harvest is unpredictable? Some years, you start it later than normal. Some years you do the opposite. And sometimes you finish it in record time – like our Sonoma-based Mick Schroeter just did.
So what do you do with all this extra time you thought you’d spend harvesting? Well, if you’re anything like Mick, you go travelling.
Watch this video update from Mick somewhere in the world
En garde! Harvest 2026 begins in Oregon
While winemakers in sun-drenched California have been sweating through harvest since early August, cool-climate Oregon takes its sweet time.
It’s September, and Scott Kelley’s vintage is officially out of the starting blocks.
To mark the occasion, Scott gathered the crew and did what any self-respecting winemaker would do: whipped out a Champagne sabre and a celebratory bottle of fizz. A sword-swinging toast to the incoming fruit.
Watch Scott sabre his way into Harvest 2026 here
Harvest downtime with Kat Darnault
While Ben is knee-deep in grapes (and super happy with both the quality and volume coming in), his wife Kat takes us on a quick breather away from the winery to share her weekly ritual: visiting their local Tuesday market in Olonzac. It's where she sources the magnificent southern French produce that fuels the entire Darnault operation.
Take a quick breather with Kat and see life beyond the vineyard down in the Languedoc
Fresh fruit and veg at Olonzac Tuesday market
Ciao Angels!
Italian superstar winemaker Stefano di Blasi is elbow deep in Merlot grapes destined for his IGT Toscana.
Stefano says that because of the intense heat this year, there’s a little less juice in the grapes, but no fear – the Merlot remains “fantastic”, and the quality is “unbelievable”.
Can we speed time up until we can have a glass, please?
Watch Stefano in the winery as the grapes roll in
Winemaking: the unvarnished truth
The great thing about having our own winery in the heart of California wine country is that we get the inside scoop on winemaking – every juicy detail from the people in the know. And here it is, courtesy of Franc Dusak, our director of winemaking over in Sonoma and third generation winemaker.
“Everyone thinks that when you come to the winery that you’re going to be tasting barrels and sampling different things.
“Really what you’re doing is cleaning. It’s 99% cleaning.”
Ok so it’s not all crushing and sipping the good stuff. But we thank Franc and the team for their hard work. Our sips are better for it!
Watch this video from inside the winery – we challenge you not to be mesmerised
Franc Dusak
Rainy day blues and remarkable fungi
Is rain still harvest’s enemy number one? Maybe not. At least according to Sonoma-based Ondine Chattan. Years of experience has given her the tools to deal with most scenarios during the most hectic time of the winemaker calendar. But what about storms during harvest? And fungi?
The Dance of Rudy’s Reds
Did you know it sometimes takes a little Malbec (or Merlot, or Zinfandel, or Grenache) to make your favorite Cabernet shine?
Some years produce Cabernet grapes that feel a bit, well, harsh on their own. The signature strong, structural flavors can taste overwhelming (and not at all enjoyable) on their own, leaving you feeling like something is missing in your glass. So to even out the scales, your winemakers will add a dollop of fruit-forward Malbec or smooth Merlot during fermentation (or Zin, or Grenache, or… you get the drill) to balance the powerful Cabernet.
Take Rudy von Strasser. His Cab is pure legend, but his most recent harvest was for some other standout reds – the Sori Bricco Merlot and Malbec grapes he uses to perfect the flavor of his Cabernet. He’s been blending these rich reds from his own vineyard for the past 28 years to make his Cabernet something truly special.
Read on for more details on Rudy’s delicate blending dance here.
Rudy von Strasser during Harvest 2026.
By the Light of the Moon
Take a nighttime stroll through wine country, and you’ll see that the vines are far from peaceful. You’ll find rows and rows of crews hand-picking and machines humming away. And it’s not just because they’re too excited to get some shut-eye.
Daytime heat affects both the grapes and the people picking them, draining the team’s energy and the grapes’ precious juice. To solve for the sun’s intensity, some winemakers prefer to pick at night. Cooler-temperature harvests allow the grapes to preserve their juice and freshness, leading to a better wine in your glass. Not to mention a bit less sweat on the grapes by the picking teams.
Ben Darnault’s team has been burning the candle at both ends, capping off their first full week with a nighttime Rosé harvest.
Get the full French Dispatch here.
Lights out in Priorat: a dramatic opening act
If you’re going to kick off harvest among the sweeping slate slopes of El Priorat, you might as well do it with maximum cinematic drama.
For Franck Massard, day one in Poboleda delivered a surprise hailstorm just as the first crop arrived at the winery. And to top it off, the local power grid threw in the towel, plunging the team (briefly) into darkness. Talk about a high-stress opening act to harvest.
The good news? Day two brought calmer skies. The storm has cleared, the power is back on, and the fruit coming off those legendary slopes is looking phenomenal.
Harvesting on these steep, slate terraces is all about patience and picking each variety at its peak. First out of the blocks is the delicate Garnacha Blanca. Over the coming weeks, the team will hand-pick their way through the rest…
Check out Franck’s winemaker page here
Some of Franck’s dedicated picking squad – organic fruit this good demands to be picked by hand.
Rage against the machines…
When Languedoc winemaker Katie Jones kicked off her harvest, the plan was beautifully simple: no rushing and no big picking machines or crushers.
Just a faithful team hand-picking old vine grapes, so only the best fruit made it into her winery.
Turns out, the machines had other plans. Or rather, the extreme heat did.
With temperatures soaring, Katie’s equipment has gone on strike (a very French tradition). First, the press refused to start. Then the cold unit packed it in. Finally, the refrigerated container gave up the ghost entirely.
Katie has spent more time staring at the insides of broken machinery this week than she has at her beloved vines.
Thankfully, through it all, her team has kept their cool and the stress hasn't transferred to the wines. The reds are rolling in, and the Syrah – against all mechanical odds – is looking magnificent.
Take a look at Katie's page for more updates here and check out the glam side of harvest on her Instagram
Peek inside the belly of the beast (AKA Katie’s winery kit) – a sight she is fiercely hoping to avoid for the rest of harvest.
Nothing like a father-daughter duo
Like Stephen Millier, Aussie-in-California Daryl Groom’s 2026 harvest is his earliest ever.
But this one is different for another reason – Daryl’s working the vines with his daughter, Kara.
They are in a rhythm: grape sampling for one another to check sugar content, sharing the vineyard inspections.
“We each walk separate rows and take our own samples then compare. If similar, we know it’s correct.”
On August 17th they reckoned they had another week until go time. Watch this space.
Check out Daryl’s post here.
Daryl and his daughter, fellow winemaker Kara, with their freshly picked grape samples
All’s quiet (ish) in the Southern Hemisphere
While the Northern Hemisphere is picking and pressing, on the opposite side of the world it’s quiet – and cold – according to Kiwi winemaker Nicky Parish.
The vines are dormant but the winemakers? Far from it. This is “the moment we get to shape what's coming rather than just react to it,” she says.
“Everything that happens later… starts from the choices made out here in the quiet, in the cold, right now.”
Kicking off Naked Sonoma’s second harvest
It’s usually my three-year-old daughter who's giddy at the sound and sight of heavy duty machinery. But a few weeks ago that was 39-year-old me.
I was lucky enough to travel from London and visit Naked Sonoma in mid-August, and even luckier that the trip coincided with the early days of harvest in California.
On my final day, a parcel of grapes was due to arrive in the winery where Naked is based. (It will never not be cool that the office is in a winery.)
With about half an hour until I absolutely had to leave, the grapes landed. With hi-vis donated by a colleague (thanks, Sarah!) I did an awkward run-jog across the car park, and watched the whole thing unfold, from forklift to crushpad to tank.
(And yes, I was a little late to check-in at the airport.) – Clare S
Maza at Naked Sonoma
And so it begins…
In Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma Country, Mick Schroeter is walking the vines with his Aussie shepherd, Tucker.
Tucker kept his professional opinion to himself, but Mick suspected harvest was about four weeks away.
His Sauvignon Blanc grapes, destined for his fumé blanc, had been through veraison, changed colour from pea green to a lighter shade, and softened, signalling ripening was under way.
A quick bite told Mick they are still a little acidic – as you’d expect – but the yield was looking good, and the conditions, including Sonoma’s classic 35 degree swing in temperature across the day, were perfect for Sauvignon Blanc.
Watch Mick’s vineyard inspection here
Dreamteam: Mick Schroeter and Tucker
