This year, we thought it would be fun to post some of the snapshots of our harvest and crush season! It’s still ongoing, but we started back in August with lots of equipment cleaning, and will be ending in October… with lots more equipment cleaning.
Here are some of the highlights…
August – Bells Up Harvest Bin Prep
Our daughter’s boyfriend, Tannar, spent the majority of August manning the power washer on bins, concrete, and much more to help us get ready. Meanwhile, Winemaker Dave (pictured above) started pulling cluster samples to test in our lab for sugars and acids to help us make decisions about when to schedule picks.
September 16-17 – First Pinot Blanc Pick for Kramer Vineyards
We LOVE working with second generation wine family and sisters Becky and Kim Kramer at Kramer Vineyards. They’ve purchased Pinot Blanc from us twice now for their own production, as well as have bubbled our Joy Estate Seyval Blanc Brut for the past few years. We’re excited to be working on a new collaboration with them with Zweigelt from this year’s harvest!
Becky and Dave check out the clusters the day before the pick!
Always great to work with Victoria Reader and Alondra Sotelo from Novo Start Vineyard Services.
Nothing like that first pick of the day, at sunrise.
The Pinot Blanc clusters were ridiculously huge this year.
Two tons of Pinot Blanc, ready for pickup (and processing) by the Kramer Vineyards team.
Saturday, September 19 – First (and Last) Estate Pick of Pinot Noir
For the first time ever, Sara missed a harvest day due to a horrific virus that left her bedridden with an awful fever for 4 days straight. Thank heavens for many, many experienced and good friends who came to our rescue when we lost several other harvest helpers to the same illness. Here’s a few shots from the day we picked all 7 clones of Pinot Noir from our estate vineyard. It was a long, grueling marathon. Thank you to everyone who jumped on the line—literally at the last minute—to help.
No, the cleaning never ends.
Our amazing team of harvest helpers, hard at work.
Dave gets ready to dump another bin of grapes into the hopper.
The view from the destemmer. It was a perfect weather day, thankfully.
Saturday, September 26 – The Rest of the White Grapes Harvested at Bells Up
Another return customer, Jared Rallison of J Rallison Cellars, bought out the rest of the Pinot Blanc this year. We also picked all the Seyval Blanc in preparation to make the 2026 Helios and Joy.
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The first bin of Seyval Blanc picked up by Winemaker Dave, putting his tractoring skills to work.
More Seyval Blanc, ready to go to the winery for processing.
Then, the picking crew moved down into the Pinot Blanc to harvest for the Rallison team.
The clippers were flying!
Absolutely gorgeous fruit this year.
Another picture perfect, ginormous Pinot Blanc cluster on its way to Jared Rallison.
Another early morning. We were done by 8am picking both blocks.
Saturday, October 3 – Picking and Processing Estate Zweigelt and Schioppettino
These two European varietals, from Austria (Zweigelt) and Italy (Schioppettino), take the longest to ripen. Both produce the most enormous clusters of grapes with thick purple skins. The Zweigelt clusters are extremely tight with lots of wings (Sara says they look like the hair on Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons). The Schioppettino clusters are much looser, with long stems.
Our first commercial crop of Zweigelt.
Alondra Sotelo and the Novo Start crew was back to pick for us.
Finally, the Schioppettino comes in last.
Alondra Sotelo, hands on for harvest.
Winemaker Dave hauls the last bin of 2026—Schioppettino—up to the winery.
No photo manipulation involved. That’s 100% a real cluster of Schioppettino on the sorting line, roughly 4-5 times the size of the typical Pinot Noir cluster.
Ongoing Post-Pick: Punchdowns and Pumpovers
Twice a day, Winemaker Dave with an assist from our morning helpers Joe and “Harvest Intern” Dave (an original Founding Member of our Fanfare Club who recently retired from his day job) and our Consulting Winemaker Erica Stark in the evening, works the ferments. This process uses tools to “punch down” the cap of grape skins, seeds, and pulp that rises to the top of the fermenter throughout the fermentation process, OR uses a pump to “pump over” the liquid from the bottom of the fermentation tank to the top to keep the cap from drying out.
Winemaker Dave hard at work on evening pumpovers in the tasting room.
Consulting Winemaker Erica Stark watches the Pinot Noir ferments closely in the production building during evening punchdowns.
Tuesday, October 6 – First Press Day: All 7 Pinot Noir Clones
Timing is everything. Not only did we pick all 7 Estate Pinot Noir clones (Pommard, 115, 777, 667, 113, 943, and Wadenswïl) on the same day, all 7 ferments wound down at the same time. That meant an epic, exhausting day of pressing all 7 clones… on Winemaker Dave and Money Honey Sara’s 25th Wedding Anniversary.
Sadly it was too warm for Winemaker Dave to wear his infamous Oompa Loompa waders for this first press cycle, so he wore his Bells Up Blue ones instead.
Let the shoveling begin.
One shovel scoop at a time, 7 separate press runs of Pinot Noir. It was a very, very, VERY long day.
But just look at that gorgeous wine!
While Dave was pressing wine, Sara was baking Cardamom Maple Sticky Buns, a recipe from The New York Times. Check out that vineyard shot that made it into the NYT Bake Time e-newsletter!
Visit the Winery for a Behind-the-Scenes Look at Winemaking
Now is a fantastic time to come for a private wine tasting experience, hosted by Winemaker Dave exclusively for one group at a time. This time of year, guests get a bonus peek into fermenters and the winemaking process. But we promise not to put anyone to work. Call 503-537-1328 to schedule your seat at the table.
