Coldest July Since 1960s Slows Start to 2025 Harvest, Winemaker Pauline Lhote Sees ‘Mild Napa Growing Season Favoring Cool-Climate Wines’
August 12, 2025 (Napa Valley, CA) — CHANDON California officially announced the start of Napa’s sparkling harvest today, with Head Winemaker Pauline Lhote calling the first pick of the 2025 season. With minimal spring rain and mild summer temperatures overall, a historically cool July slowed late summer ripening across all of CHANDON’s estate vineyards and led to a later start to the Napa harvest than in 2024. Marking its 52nd year as a pioneer of California sparkling wine, CHANDON began harvesting grapes from its Yountville estate vineyard on Tuesday, August 12, bringing in 22 tons of Meunier in the cool hours around midnight, with an estimated 57 tons of Chardonnay and 23 tons of Pinot Noir to follow later in the week. Gathering together with her team, Pauline noted, “We have been fine tuning our regenerative farming practices across our three estate vineyards all year, so I’m excited to see how the results pay off with grape quality and overall vineyard health this harvest. I’m anticipating a stellar report card!”
While some of July’s coldest monthly temperatures on record since the 1960s slowed the start of Napa’s harvest, Pauline noted that milder temperatures favor California’s fresh fruit character and preserve the bright acidity emblematic of CHANDON sparkling wines. “Overall, it was a cooler end of summer for Napa Valley grapes – but mild growing conditions favor cool-climate grapes and fresh, bright wines,” said Pauline. “Having farmed in California during multiple drought years and heat waves, this year’s fruit quality and acidity looks outstanding so far.”
In terms of grape yield for 2025, Pauline and CHANDON Winegrowing Director Carlos Danti are anticipating an average to slightly larger than average crop, with minimal rain and warm soil temperatures allowing vineyards to grow and ripen well, if somewhat unevenly at times. “While this year’s crop size is likely to be about average or a bit above, CHANDON is extremely fortunate to be able to farm for quality, not quantity,” noted Pauline. “Whether the year is high yield or low, wet or dry, our goal is always to make sparkling wines of exceptional acidity and delicious quality.”
A pioneer of sparkling wine in California – and the first French-owned sparkling wine house in Napa – CHANDON continued to embrace innovation and change in the vineyards as it marked its 52nd growing season. As part of its goal towards cleaner farming and reduced fossil fuels, the winery has embraced regenerative farming practices across vineyards and installed solar panels in Carneros and Yountville to offset energy, as well as replacing its tractor fleet with electric vehicles. In addition to irrigating with 90% reclaimed water, the winery continued to cultivate over 52 new acres of drought-tolerant vines in Yountville and Carneros. According to Pauline, “Our goal is to learn from the past and plan for the future. All of our new plantings, composting, solar panels, and other regenerative farming updates at CHANDON are the result of meticulous research to ensure we can continue growing the highest quality fruit even as weather conditions and climatic changes get less predictable.”
CHANDON is celebrating the 2025 harvest with the national release of its first regeneratively farmed wine, a new Reserve Blanc de Blancs available at retail across the U.S. beginning this month. Made with 100% cool-climate Chardonnay from the winery’s Carneros estate, this California Reserve Blanc de Blancs is the ‘ultimate oyster bubbles,’ according to Pauline. “I love the elegance and complexity of this wine, and the yeasty notes that remind me of some of my favorite bubbles from France. It’s regeneratively farmed and intentionally ‘reserve’ in style, aged a minimum of 3.5 years and partially fermented in French oak. I’m very proud of it,” said Pauline.
The new regeneratively farmed CHANDON Reserve Blanc de Blancs is available at CHANDON.com and retailers nationwide starting August 2025 (National SRP $32).
