Visiting wine country in harvest season

Fall brings a run of harvest, release and festival dates to our calendar. This is a practical guide to the season from what we hold: the dates on our calendar, the days the tasting rooms open, and how many ask you to book.

For how the 2026 harvest itself went, early in the cool regions and closer to normal in the warmer ones, read Harvest 2026 started early.

On the calendar, October and November

These harvest, release and festival dates are on our calendar, each checked against the organizer's own page:

• October 10: Los Olivos Day in the Country, downtown Los Olivos, from 10am. The same afternoon, the Los Olivos Wine Festival runs 1pm–4pm at St. Mark's-in-the-Valley Church.
• October 10: Step Into Harvest: A Behind-the-Scenes Winery Tour, Rincon Mountain Winery, Carpinteria.
• October 17: Vintners Festival Weekend 2026, the Santa Barbara Vintners grand tasting at the Firestone Estate on Foxen Canyon Road, Santa Ynez.
• October 17: Roaring 20's Fall Release Party, Lincourt Vineyards, Solvang.
• October 23: Harvest Lunch: Rodney's Vineyard Rhône Varietal Focus, Fess Parker Winery, Los Olivos.
• October 25: Vent'Anni: Celebrating Our 20th Harvest, Grassini Family Vineyards, Santa Ynez.
• October 30: Haunted Ball: La Saignée, Sunstone Winery, Santa Ynez.
• November 1: Harvest Open House, Brick Barn Wine Estate, Buellton. No RSVP needed.
• November 1: Firestone Vineyard's Fall Club Release, Los Olivos. Open to non-members with a ticket.
• November 7: Qupe Day @ The Estate, Andrew Murray Vineyards, Foxen Canyon Road. A reservation is required.
• November 7: Santa Barbara Fall Tasting Festival, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History.
• November 7: Fall Harvest Dinner, Alma Rosa Estate, Buellton.

Times, prices and booking links are on each event page. All told, 38 events are on our calendar from October 6 to the end of November, including tastings, dinners and live music. The full list is at events, and we add dates as wineries post them.

Which days the rooms open

We hold posted hours as plain weekly hours for 140 of the places we list. Here is how many of them open on each day:

• Friday and Saturday: 139
• Sunday: 134
• Thursday: 118
• Monday: 105
• Wednesday: 86
• Tuesday: 69

So a midweek visit, Tuesday especially, has about half the choice of a weekend. Sixty-six of the 140 open every day of the week. They cluster where the tasting rooms do: 24 in Los Olivos, 15 in Santa Barbara, 8 in Solvang, 5 in Santa Ynez, 4 in Lompoc, 3 each in Buellton and Santa Maria, and one each in Gaviota, Goleta, Los Alamos and Montecito.

To see what is open on a given day in one town, use that town's page, for example Los Olivos on Tuesday or the Monday list. For more on Mondays, read Open on Monday.

Booking: the real numbers

Of the 198 places we list that take visitors, here is what they tell us about reservations:

• 62 welcome walk-ins.
• 53 recommend a reservation.
• 46 require one.
• 37 we do not know yet, and their listing says so.

That is exactly half, 99 of 198, that recommend or require a booking. If your day is built around an event, book the rooms that ask for it ahead of time. Of the 66 places that open every day, 24 also welcome walk-ins. Those are the easiest stops to add on short notice, and walk-ins welcome lists them all.

Making a day of it

• Pair an event with nearby tasting rooms in My day. The planner checks each stop against its posted hours for the date you pick.
• My day also has ready-made days to start from: Los Olivos on foot, a Sta. Rita Hills loop and Foxen Canyon Road. We wrote up the first two in Los Olivos on foot and Pinot Noir in the Sta. Rita Hills, and our guide collects more plans.
• Plan for a driver or a ride home, whichever day you go.

Every hour, policy and date above comes from the source linked on each listing or event page.