2025 Harvest in Review
 

2025 Growing Season In the Vineyard & Cellar

All of our fruit from the 2025 growing season is now harvested and in house! Our Syrah from Rosella's Vineyard was picked on November 4th and was the very last fruit to arrive to our production facility. This is only our fourth harvest since our founding in 2001 that we harvesed as late as November.

As our final lots complete fermentation before heading to barrel, we wanted to share an update on the season and our early impressions of the wines.

Overall, 2025 is shaping up to be another exceptional vintage for the Santa Lucia Highlands. Following the lighter 2024 crop, the vines entered this year refreshed and balanced, ready to deliver fruit of outstanding quality. Much like 2023, the growing season was cool and steady and free of major heat events. This long, even ripening allowed for beautiful flavor development and natural acidity retention.

For the majority of our blocks we reached optimal ripeness earlier than in 2023, a notably late year, allowing harvest to unfold at an even, measured pace. Picking began with select Pinot Noir blocks at Soberanes and Sierra Mar, and, as usual, finished with Rosella’s Vineyard, where persistent wind and fog stretch out the growing period.

We let instinct, vine chemistry, and most importantly taste guide our pick decisions rather than the rain forecasts (which caused some stress, but thankfully never materialized in any meaningful way). Each block was harvested at its peak balance of brix, acidity, and flavor. The fruit arrived at the winery in pristine condition, making it easy to sort and send only perfect whole berries to tank.

Pinot Noir led the way into the cellar, followed by Chardonnay, with Syrah and Grenache bringing up the tail three weeks later after our Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were harvested. The steady rhythm of harvest gave our small cellar team the chance to focus on each lot, making thoughtful stylistic decisions as fruit arrived. With most primary fermentations now complete and the early blocks resting in barrel, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by how swiftly the wines have come together. Many lots reached ideal balance and concentration sooner than expected, which is always a welcome sign when things click immediatley.

Even at this early stage, 2025 is showing all the hallmarks of a standout vintage with vivid fruit, fine structure, and purity throughout.

Our youngest vineyard, WindRock, planted in 2021 in partnership with the Pisoni family, is showing early signs of great promise. The Pommard and Calera clones are revealing excellent blending potential, and we explored a touch of whole-cluster fermentation to help uncover this site’s emerging personality.

Harvest is always an all-hands effort, and this year was no exception. Gary and Adam worked through the nights during picks that began around 9 p.m. each day, while Scott, Nick, and Rafa managed nonstop activity at the winery. Our newest team member, Paul, jumped right into the deep end, learning quickly that harvest involves just as much cleaning as winemaking. 

Across the five vineyards we farm and the two we source from, we brought in 42 individual lots between our different blocks, varietals, and clones. Come spring, we’ll begin the process of tasting and assembling these lots into their final blends.

Meanwhile our 2024 vintage Pinot Noirs and Grenache were bottled in August and are resting ahead of their Spring and Fall releases. They are already showing tremendous concentration and show promise of being another pleasurable vintage. Our 2024 vintage Chardonnays and Syrahs continue to rest in barrel and are slated to get bottled in December before their release next year.

We look forward to sharing more as the 2025 wines continue their evolution, but for now, we can say this vintage carries all the hallmarks of greatness from the Santa Lucia Highlands.

Harvest 2025 Collage