Harvest Arrives Early

Harvest began early at Occasio this year—earlier than ever before.

On Monday, August 10, we received the first fruit of the 2026 vintage: Gewürztraminer from the Russian River Valley. In 19 years of making wine, we have never begun harvest this soon.

The grapes were picked in the cool morning hours and brought directly to our Livermore winery, where they were whole-cluster pressed. The juice was then settled in tank in preparation for fermentation.

Gewürztraminer is new to Occasio, but it continues a direction we have been moving toward for several vintages: aromatic white wines shaped by fragrance, freshness, texture, and place. The Russian River Valley’s cool, fog-influenced climate gives Gewürztraminer the opportunity to develop its distinctive perfume while retaining the acidity needed to keep the finished wine lively and balanced.

We expect this first vintage to reveal itself gradually. For now, the juice is intensely aromatic, offering an early glimpse of what the vineyard and the season may give us.

The August 10 arrival was unusually early, although we were not alone. Warm summer weather accelerated ripening throughout Northern California, and several Livermore Valley wineries also began picking ahead of their customary schedules. Harvest, which once seemed to belong firmly to late summer and autumn, arrived while August was still young.

Yet the beginning of harvest is measured by more than a date on the calendar. It is the moment when the quiet rhythms of the growing season give way to the urgency of the cellar. The press begins turning. Tanks are prepared. The winery fills with the scent of fresh grapes, and a vintage that has existed only in the vineyard begins its transformation into wine.

For Occasio, the 2026 vintage begins with a new variety for us, from a cool-climate vineyard, on the earliest harvest day in our history.

Harvest has begun.