2026 Harvest Update

I wanted to share a Madson update as we prepare for an extremely early Santa Cruz Mountains harvest. Our grapes are turning red and we have been putting up nets to prevent the birds from gorging. If our vineyards were bigger and not surrounded by forest this is a step we could omit but in the Santa Cruz Mountains it is paramount. Starlings are voracious. 

This year's weather made for an unusual season. A record-warm winter pushed bud break and bloom several weeks early across the Santa Cruz Mountains — the earliest flowering some local growers have seen in decades. Then, right during bloom, we got rain in late April. That's bad timing; grape flowers need warm, calm, dry conditions to pollinate properly. Cool, wet weather causes shatter: flowers fail to pollinate and never become berries. It's a normal vine response, not a disease, but it means fewer berries per cluster. The result is lighter clusters and lower yields this year, a common story across the region this season. Some growers are responding by thinning down to fewer, higher-quality clusters rather than chasing volume, since the vines already did some of that work for us. Lower yield isn't necessarily bad news for quality; smaller crops often mean more concentrated fruit. But it does mean less wine from this vintage than usual.

Some news closer to home: we are officially sold out of 2025 Gamay, 2025 Pinot Noir Rosé, 2024 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay and 2024 Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir. We have just a few cases remaining of 2024 Arey Chardonnay and 2024 Ascona Pinot Noir.

Ali is moving on from Madson, and we're grateful for everything she brought to this team. Stepping into the office manager role is Justin Ellis, who many of you will start hearing from directly as we’re preparing for our Fall 2026 release, wines will be available for pick up on August 15th for our Wine Club members.

Thank you for drinking with us and for joining us on this journey.

Santé,

Cole Thomas and the Madson Team