(Wines&Vines) - For the first time in memory, the Napa Valley Grapegrowers held its annual harvest update as harvest ended, not weeks in advance.

This year was the earliest harvest on record, and most local grapegrowers will finish up this week or next.

“It feels like the end of October, not its start,” said PJ Alviso, director of estate viticulture for Duckhorn Wine Co. in St. Helena, Calif., and one of the speakers at the conference.

In addition to being early, the harvest was a bit light, perhaps 10% to 20% off “average” but 30% to 40% under the bountiful yields of the past three years, according to Remi Cohen, vice president and general manager of Lede Family Wines in Yountville, where the conference was held.

The meeting was moderated by Jennifer Putnam, executive director of the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, and the panel also included winemaker Matt Reid of Benessere Vineyards and Estate Winery in St. Helena.

The event was streamed live, as it had been for the past few years, when it has attracted almost 10,000 viewers on various wine-oriented Internet services.

Cohen described how a warm, dry winter brought on bud break about two weeks early, and May and June were cool, causing vines to slow development. “Once July hit, it got very hot, leading to one of the warmest seasons on record” and the early harvest.

“The vines were confused,” explained Alviso anthropomorphically. “This led to some shatter and uneven ripening.”

He added that harvest time depended on when the vines had been pruned and the consequent timing of bud break. “A day in Carneros isn’t a day in Calistoga. Howell Mountain was so far behind, in fact, that it wasn’t affected by the hot weather in July.”