(PD) - Anne Dempsey finally will be able to relax for Halloween this year.

As winemaker at Gundlach Bundschu Winery in the Sonoma Valley, Dempsey typically would still be almost two weeks away from the end of the North Coast grape harvest.

But this year, she received her last grapes Oct. 13, bins of merlot that marked the conclusion of the 2015 harvest for the family-operated winery.

“Usually, I remember going to the store in August, then later I turn around and there are pumpkins and I don’t what happened,” she said of the way time blurs in Wine Country during harvest, when everyone from field workers in the vineyard to cellar rats in the winery put in long, exhausting hours to pick and process the region’s grape crop.

Most of the grape harvest wrapped up last week in Sonoma County, though a few wineries still are picking, said Sean Carroll, spokesman for Sonoma County Winegrowers, a trade group that represents more than 1,800 grape growers. Historically, harvest ends on the North Coast around Nov. 1.

Adam Lee, co-founder of Siduri Wines, said that he actually took a trip with several other fathers from his children’s school to attend a Giants game in late September — an unheard-of excursion for most winemakers at that time of year. He finished harvest Oct. 2 when the last of his pinot noir crop came into his Santa Rosa facility, the earliest ever for Siduri outside its first year of operation, when production was limited.

“I got a little more time at home,” said Lee, who sold the winery to Jackson Family Wines in January but still serves as its winemaker. “There is a lot of school stuff that goes on the beginning of the year. … I miss seeing my kids.”

At Jordan Vineyards and Winery, harvest ended Sept. 28, the earliest since 1997, according to Lisa Mattson, spokeswoman for the Alexander Valley winery.

The North Coast grape crop will be much smaller than normal this year, with estimates ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent less. Some varieties had much smaller yields, such as pinot noir and cabernet sauvignon, especially the latter grown on hillsides.

“Pinot has always been the one variety that has been a finicky son of a gun,” said Glenn Proctor, a partner at Ciatti Co., a San Rafael wine and grape broker.