2026 Harvest

It seems to me that unprecedented things are happening more frequently than ever before. We experienced one such event this - a harvest on the 4th and 5th of August! In the years before Bowker Family Wine took over farming and winemaking at Mink Vineyard, harvest would typically be early to mid-September. In our first two years of production we harvestedAugust 26th, 2024 and September 1st/3rd, 2025. I prefer picking when the grapes retain freshness and natural acidity that translates directly to the bottled wine that we hope you all have been enjoying.

But why so early this year?

Warm Winter
Temperatures in the vineyard reached 90 degrees in March and that followed a January and February with little rain and lots of warm sunshine. Bud break started off three weeks earlier than prior years and the vines never slowed down.

Yields down
In a world where all the answers are one prompt away, life still contains a few mysteries. The total tons we harvested was less than half of what we pulled in last year. Some of that can be explained by the rigorous renewal pruning we did as a family in the Spring and we can speculate about the weather the prior Spring when the cluster count is set, but mostly it’s totally up to the vines on how much fruit they want to put forth. It’s humbling to watch. Because the crop load was much lighter, the vines ripened the lighter load quicker than in the more prodigious years. We won’t have as much 2026 Pinot Noir that will make it to bottle but all signs are the quality will be high.

With gratitude,
Austin Bowker