{"id":982,"date":"2026-09-28T13:26:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lagarioja.com\/?p=982"},"modified":"2026-09-28T13:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T11:40:24","slug":"rioja-harvest-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lagarioja.com\/en\/rioja-harvest-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvest Season in Rioja Alavesa: When to Go, What You’ll See and How to Experience It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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For eleven months of the year Rioja Alavesa is a landscape. Then, for a few weeks between late August and mid-October, it stops being a landscape and turns into an open-air factory: crews bent among the vines from first light, tractors hauling trailers through the villages, weighbridges running flat out, and a sweet, sharp smell \u2014 fermenting must \u2014 drifting through the streets of Laguardia and Elciego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you only get to choose one season, choose this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When is the grape harvest in Rioja Alavesa?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is no fixed date. Picking starts when the fruit reaches ripeness, and that depends on the year, the grape variety and the altitude of each plot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a general guide:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Period<\/th>What’s happening<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Last week of August<\/strong><\/td>First white grapes and the earliest plots. Crews are hired.<\/td><\/tr>
First half of September<\/strong><\/td>Picking becomes general. Peak activity on the tracks.<\/td><\/tr>
Second half of September<\/strong><\/td>The bulk of the Tempranillo across most municipalities.<\/td><\/tr>
Early October<\/strong><\/td>High-altitude plots and old vines \u2014 always last.<\/td><\/tr>
Mid-October onwards<\/strong><\/td>Harvest over. The great autumn colour show begins.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 2026<\/strong> the campaign ran earlier than ever. Summer heatwaves accelerated ripening \u2014 the fruit gaining alcohol while losing acidity, which pushed many wineries to bring their picking decisions forward \u2014 and harvesting became general around mid-September, some two weeks earlier than the norm of a few years ago, when starting around 10 October was standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DOCa Rioja regulatory board declared the harvest closed on 22 September<\/strong>, with 333.8 million kilos of fruit across the denomination, of which 80.3 million came from Rioja Alavesa<\/strong> (72.1 red varieties, 8.3 white). That is a substantial recovery on the previous two vintages, the shortest in three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you’re coming specifically for the harvest, check the state of the campaign the week before you travel<\/strong>. One year it runs a fortnight early; the next it runs ten days late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why the harvest is especially visible here<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rioja Alavesa has an unusually fragmented ownership structure: small plots, a great deal of old bush-trained vine, on slopes and clay-limestone soils. That geography dictates how the fruit comes in \u2014 to a very high degree, by hand<\/strong>, into small crates so the bunches reach the winery intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a visitor that means something concrete: what you see in the vineyard is people working<\/strong>, not machines. Crews, secateurs, crates, trailers. It’s a human landscape, and that’s why it moves people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Old<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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What you’ll actually see<\/h2>\n\n\n\n