We’re pleased to report on Oregon’s 2025 grape harvest. It is accumulated information from our conversations with wineries, as well as our partnered producers that make Syndicate label wines possible!
The overall impression is that this year is one of the hottest, if not the hottest year Oregon has seen. Early rainfall in the Spring gave way to months of warm and hot, dry weather, which helped the grapes ripen early and without any surprises
This resulted in a compressed growing season, with fruit setting early on the vine, veraison (a ripening period when grapes obtain the coloration in their skins) happening quite early, and the resulting harvest occurring weeks, if not a full month ahead of historic schedules.
Ultimately, Oregon’s winemakers pulled in lots of high quality fruit, but with added pressure on the harvest team to bring it in faster than was expected. In the words of one winemaker, “We are enslaved to the grape.”
Chris Berg, of Roots Wine Company is located just west of Ribbon Ridge in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA, and who produces Syndicate’s Sauvignon Blanc, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, and is currently working on a Columbia Gorge red blend, notes that 2025 was “a very early harvest, several weeks ahead” compared with previous years.
Further south in the Eola-Amity Hills AVA, we heard from Cyler Varnum of Varnum Vintners, who produces Syndicate’s Sparkling Brut. He provided a similar take on the harvest, noting “2025 is the hottest vintage in Oregon history. It is also very dry despite being humid which caused a lot of disease pressure. So staying on top of the spray program was essential. While not extreme, it was just hot the whole way through. Bud break and bloom were early and harvest is early as well. There was some frost in early May and some rain during flowering so some sites had a bit of loss of yields.”
Varnum further added, “This won’t really be a problems as thousands of tons of grapes will go unpicked this year, as we see an increased glut of grapes. This is not due to a decrease in wine consumption so much as over-planting that has now led to excess of production. The fruit is very ripe in terms of sugars and the flavors are good.”
Chris Baker, of Ancient Cellars, is located in Wheatland near Salem, and produces Syndicate’s Ribbon Ridge Pinot Noir, Rosé of Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc, and is currently working on a Tempranillo-Syrah blend that will be featured under a new series of lables by Syndicate.
Baker commented that this year’s harvest was, “Extremely early. Beautiful fruit. Challenging higher sugars and low acidity, but not unbalanced (i.e. high malic acid from early sugar development). Meaning there is not high Malic, so the fruit is truly ripe, not just sugar development.
Baker also echoes Varnum’s observations of too much fruit has been produced, but it is understood there will be ups and downs in the production-demand balance, and this makes it possible to select only the best fruit for the current vintage.
Finally, we bumped into Bruno Corneaux at Domaine Divio. Located in the southern edge of Ribbon Ridge, Corneaux, a 4th generation Burgundian winemaker, produces exquisite Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, along with other Burgundian white varietals and red blends. He noted harvest was “Very early, we’ve been working round the clock to bring in all the fruit.”
From all indications, the 2025 vintage is going to be one of Oregon’s finest. We just hope all winemakers manage to get some sleep soon!