Harvest Report – 2 September 2025

At Smith-Madrone we have put our toe in the water for this coming harvest. We harvested a small amount of both Riesling and Chardonnay this past week. The vines seem very happy and are doing well; there’s lots of water from this past winter. There’s no question that this will be a good-sized crop, but you never really know until all the grapes are harvested. The wind conditions of the Pickett Fire were helpful for most of the Napa Valley in that the wind blew most of the smoke in a southeasterly direction away from the valley and later changed to a northeastern direction. For those of us on the Mayacamas Range and in the Napa Valley itself, I believe there will be little to no smoke issue at all. I can only speak authoritatively on the Spring Mountain AVA and the Mayacamas Range; I don’t know about the other areas because I don’t live and work there.

Written by Stuart Smith, Smith-Madrone Winery, published in Napa Valley Register