We mentioned in an early season blog post that we started picking on August 6, 2026 – the earliest start in our 43-year history. What’s even more interesting is that we finished on October 15, 2026 – the latest we’ve ever picked. This was our longest harvest season ever, spanning over 2 months. We picked five different times, selectively bringing in fruit from different parts of the vineyard as each reached optimal ripeness.
Each pick went beautifully, though the crop was a very light. Yields were down 40 to 50 percent from recent years, but since the market is soft and inventory is heavy, a light crop was a welcome blessing. And what’s more, is the fruit looked great and the weather was incredible. August through October brought very moderate, even temperatures: mostly highs in the 70s and lows in the mid-50s. It was cooler than usual, but that gave us time for a long, drawn-out harvest. 2026 was one of those years we’ll look back on fondly.
One reason harvest stretched so long was our new consulting winemaker, Clayton Kirchhoff. Clayton recently opened a winery just five miles from our vineyard, which he shares with a small group of fellow winemakers.
Clayton and Elise have several friends in common, but it wasn’t until we finally sat down together a few months ago that we discovered how much else we shared—from our professional backgrounds to our approach to winemaking. We both began our winemaking education at Failla, the renowned Pinot Noir producer in St. Helena. Clayton later became assistant winemaker at White Rock Vineyards, then winemaker at Hudson Ranch in Los Carneros from 2018 through 2024.
At his new facility, he makes wine for his own family and works with a select group of custom-crush clients, all small family brands. He describes his style as mostly hands-off, favoring spontaneous, native-yeast fermentations and letting the wines express the places where they were grown. That philosophy feels right at home at Elkhorn Peak.
Just last week, we sat down with Clayton to taste through some barrels and begin getting acquainted with the 2026 vintage. Here are our first impressions:
We have two separate lots of Pinot Noir, picked on different dates and from different sections of the vineyard. Each is distinctive. The first has incredible depth and a range of bright red fruit—red cherry and strawberry—with a big, beautiful floral character.
The second lot was picked two weeks later. It shows more restraint and elegance, with a smooth, supple feel and a long finish.
Both lots hold a lot of promise and showcase the terroir of our south Napa vineyard beautifully. This vintage of Pinot Noir feels special…we can already sense it.
Now, about the Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab Franc harvest…
We picked Cabernet Sauvignon twice this year, each pick was about a month apart. Cabernet is still a new wine for us, and unlike Pinot Noir, we’re still developing our style. The “Robin Hood” Cab we released to wine club members earlier this year turned out to be an exceptional wine. If you haven’t read the unbelievable story behind this wine, check it out. Going into harvest 2026, we wanted to see if we could capture some of what made the Robin Hood Cab so compelling. We tasted through bottles of the Robin Hood Cab with clayton, and worked backward from there, using that wine as a reference point for one of this year’s picks. This lot is meant to be a quintessential Napa Valley Cab: notes of ripe blueberry, violet, and a hint of crushed stone. Lively red fruit and dark cocoa, supported by soft, well-integrated tannins.
The other Cab is experimental. We’re hearing more from wine drinkers who are curious about lower-alcohol wines. Is Cabernet Sauvignon usually low in alcohol? No—it’s often one of the highest-alcohol wines. But for this experimental lot, we picked with the intention of making a lighter, more restrained Cab. And we have achieved just that.
Time in barrel will help us decide what to do with this wine. It’s still very young, and how it develops with age is a bit of a wild card. We’re excited to follow its journey and see what’s ahead for it…
And the last pick of the season was our beloved Cabernet Franc. The light yields and cooler temperatures translated to one of our smallest and smoothest Cab Franc vintages to-date. We may only have enough 2026 Cab Franc to release to our wine club members, another compelling reason to join our wine club.
