Harvest Report Part II - Ribeira Sacra
At this time in a normal year, harvest in Ribeira Sacra would only just be getting underway. In 2026, it’s already halfway over.
The 2026 harvest began on August 12, the earliest date ever. As of August 31, Ribeira Sacra’s regulatory council reported that over 652,000 kilos of grapes had been picked—in 2025, the number was just 30,000 kilos by the same date. And as of this week, 2.7 million kilos of grapes out of a projected 5 million had been registered.
Starting to harvest in August isn’t necessarily out of the question for some parts of Ribeira Sacra, especially as climate change has pushed grape ripening earlier and earlier. But having half a million kilos of grapes already in wineries by the end of August puts 2026 on track to enter the history books.
Some of the crazy shift is due to climate change pushing the harvest earlier and earlier, but the changing makeup of the grape varieties being harvested is also at work here.
Lots of producers have bet on the white grape Godello, which ripens earlier than Ribeira Sacra’s traditional red grapes and makes up about half of what was harvested in August.
The early ripening has had less of an impact on Mencía, Ribeira Sacra’s star grape variety and the most widely planted, which is on track to follow a more typical harvest schedule.
2026 was marked by a warm summer, with several periods of high temperatures and moderate drought that led to rapid, even ripening. The lack of rain during the crucial weeks helped keep disease pressure low and allowed healthy grapes to come in with good sugar levels and balanced acidity. The DO says the vintage could be among the best of the past decade, particularly for Mencía and Godello, based on the concentration and balance they’ve seen in their initial analyses.
