(Wine-Searcher) - It could be a record year in the northwest, while California looks lighter and Bordeaux sweats on the weather.

Washington's grape harvest has swung into life with white wines being picked this week and the total crop is likely to be a record size.

Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris have been dispatched to the wineries, with the picking starting a week later than last year, according to Great Northwest Wine, which reported that the Auclair Winery in Woodinville picked a ton of Sauvignon Blanc on August 13.

The 2016 harvest is expected to be about 250,000 tons, outstripping the 2014 record of 227,000 tons, and it is almost double the size of the 2007 harvest, which gleaned 127,000 tons. This year, the Association of Washington Wine Grape Growers reported that vineyard acreage stood at 56,073, up from 53,353 acres a year ago. In 2006, Washington's vineyards covered just 31,000 acres. Horse Heaven Hills is the main area of growth.

Meanwhile, California's crop is likely to be lighter than last year.

Early ripening varieties were picked in the first week of July in the south of the Central Valley, and the wine-grape producing area from Fresno and Madera Counties to the Lodi area, growers began picking lower-sugar varieties for sparkling wines as well as Pinot Grigio and Muscat Canelli for still wines in the last week of July.

Allied Grape Growers cooperative vice president Jeff Bitter said the past few years of drought could be taking a toll on the vines.

"So far, yields have been coming in under earlier estimates," he told the Western Farm Press. "Nothing is coming in heavy."