HARVEST

from Napa Valley Life - Fall 2021

The Gift GUIDE

Napa’s Local Photographers Share Their Inspiration

BY LAURA LARSON

As we kick off the ‘Cheers, The Good Life’ with Visit Napa Valley, we felt a celebration of harvest season would be the perfect muse to showcase some of the abundance of riches that represent our Valley. So instead of writing a story about the state of affairs for this vintage or interviewing vintners and growers about the how’s and what’s of the season, we thought it would be an opportune time to capture the season while also celebrating some of our beloved local photographers who work behind the scenes to immortalize the beauty and hidden nuances of this pivotal time of the year.

When Napa Valley comes up in a conversation, people most often talk about the area’s beautiful wineries, the fantastic restaurants, and some of the many ways to get outside and enjoy the great outdoors. But in the center of it all, Napa Valley is an agricultural community. We grow grapes here. The coveted, lustrous glass of ruby red Cabernet or crisp and cool Sauvignon Blanc sipped and swirled on a sunny afternoon while overlooking one of Napa’s spectacular vistas was grown and harvested among some of the world’s most prestigious and prolific vineyards. And it took a lot of hard work.

During harvest season the valley comes alive before dawn as vintners, growers, and harvest workers gather in the vineyards for the pick. The bins are stacked and disbursed among the rows of vines, and it’s quiet except for the sounds of the ripened grape clusters getting tossed in their containers. The air is moist and dark except for the bobbing lights from workers’ helmets as they move from row to row, their trained eyes and skilled harvesting techniques shearing the best of the pick. Then, as the sun rises and dawn creeps in, as quickly as they came, they disappear, and the vintners head off to the winery with the bounties of the morning to start their work.

For the layperson who has not had the incredible opportunity to witness or partake in a Napa Valley grape harvest, we’re lucky to have some of the region’s best photographers who are called upon or driven to capture it for us. The collection of photos on the following pages feature some of the inspirations from Alexander Rubin, Bob McClenahan, Emma K. Morris, Lowell Downey, and Suzanne Becker Bronk. We hope you enjoy and appreciate them as much as we do.

Cheers to the good life and the abundance of Napa Valley’s riches that can be shared, savored, or discovered.

Alexander Rubin • www.rubinphotography.com

One of the things I love most about harvest is driving through Napa Valley with the windows down, the smell of fresh wine as it's crushed, filling the air. Excitement flows through me as another successful vintage is brought in from the vineyard to the winery. It is such a joy to capture this truly special season of the year!

**San Antonio Winery of Cabernet Harvest in Rutherford.**
Alexander Rubin

**Cakebread Cellars Pinot Noir Harvest**
Alexander Rubin

**Night Harvest for Westwood Wines at Annandale Gap Vineyard**
Alexander Rubin

**Ehlers Estate Night Sauvignon Blanc Harvest**
Alexander Rubin

**Single Grape Sauvignon Blanc**
Alexander Rubin

Bob McClenahan • www.bobmcclenahan.com

I love the palpable energy of harvest season. The whole valley is alive with excitement…and trucks filled with freshly plucked grapes. I rarely have as much fun as a photographer as I do when I’m capturing our hard-working vineyard employees. The workers move with incredible speed as they wield their curved knives. The smell of tractor exhaust mixes with the crisp morning air and sweet aroma of grape juice. Talking, laughing, and sometimes singing accompany the sound of the tractors pulling the trailers of grapes along the rows. It’s exciting, fun, challenging, and quite the honor to photograph these guys (and gals) in action.

Emma K. Morris • www.emmakmorris.com

I am a very photo journalisticstyle photographer with a background in art curation and creative direction, so capturing the moment in my own unique perspective comes naturally to me. I chose these particular images because they evoke the magic of what it feels like to be immersed in harvest. Warm breath into biting cold air and the headlamps that illuminate the glistening clusters during a night pick, the warm glow of the sun rising over the mountaintop as our famous air balloons hover peacefully in the air, and the incredible men and women that make up the crews who care for and harvest the grapes — without them, we would not have wine to drink. I feel grateful every day to work alongside inspiring and wildly talented winemakers, cellar masters, enologists, and vineyard crews and look forward to the beauty each new harvest year brings.

**Night Pick with Tarpon Cellars at Shifflett Estate, St. Helena**
Emma K. Morris

**Hot Air Balloons over Herb Lamb Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc Harvest, Yountville 2017**
Emma K. Morris

**Herb Lamb Vineyards Cabernet Harvest 2019**
Emma K. Morris

**Wine, not Blood. Harvest 2018 Forlorn Hope Wines**
Emma K. Morris

**Final pick of the season. Revik Wines in Coombsville**
Emma K. Morris

Lowell Downey // ART & CLARITY // www.artclarity.com

Janna and I have been photographing the harvest season for over 25 years. Yet in the harvest there is a deep appreciation of the full season of growing, from the farmer's nurturing of the soil, tending to the vine, and coaxing the ideal sugar through summer heat and evening chill. Then under dark, cold skies, tractors, pulling long crates, light up one row at a time while harvesters with worn gloves grasp well-sharpened shears to cleave the grape from the vine. The entire agricultural cycle is fascinating to witness. Once the grape is in the fermenting tank, then comes the festival celebrating the harvest’s reward as wine flows onto the lips of the patrons who provide the coin that makes the next harvest worth another year’s effort.

**Mike Grgich Looking at Grape**
Lowell Downey

Suzanne Becker Bronk // Bronk Photography // www.photodance.com

Each season in the vineyard is one step closer to harvest and now the excitement is palpable. To capture the energy, hard work and optimism around harvest, I’m always looking for perspectives that convey a sense of place, make a point, illuminate, reveal something unexpected, tug at heart strings, contain humor, highlight the strength of the moment, and have emotional impact. I hope my harvest photos honor the people involved in all aspects of the wine making process and bring attention to the importance of taking care of our natural world.