That has not happened this year. We hope you will forgive the tension in the first paragraph. It's just so hard to put drama into a 2016 Northern California vintage report. The short version: it's good. Again.

Rain fell on much of Northern California this week, in some places for the first time in months. But it didn't really matter because practically all of the thinner-skinned early-harvest varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were safely inside already. In fact, 2016 has seen such an early harvest that some winemakers don't know what to do with themselves.

"Two of my kids have October birthdays," Ryan Hodgins, winemaker of FEL wines on the Sonoma Coast and in Anderson Valley, told Wine-Searcher. "I can actually go to their birthday parties. Both of them were born when I still had fruit out there."