Winemaker Bootcamp: Napa Valley
Napa ValleyHarvest 2027Sep 13–164 days
Four days inside a working harvest — picking, sorting, punchdowns, barrel down — shoulder to shoulder with a Napa winemaker. Months later, the wine you made arrives at your door, wearing the label your crew designed.
13 places open for the September 2027 crew
Crush pad, Napa Valley
Winemaker Bootcamp is four days of production work in Napa Valley, September 13–16, 2027 — not a tasting itinerary. Every wine experience in this valley ends the same way: a flight, a story, a bottle at the register. This one starts at 7:30 on the crush pad and doesn't end when you fly home.
Boots on by 7:30, before the heat. You work the rows with your crew, then storm the crush pad as a unit — destemming clusters, sorting fruit, sending it to tank. By lunch, the fruit you touched is already changing.
Vineyard + crush pad · approx. 9am–5pm
The messiest, best day. You track temperatures and sugars, make the calls that steer the ferment, and if it's ready, the whole crew coordinates the transfer into oak. Wear the shirt you don't mind staining.
Cellar floor · approx. 10am–8:30pm · includes the winemaker dinner
The week ends at one long table in the vineyard — a multi-course winemaker dinner poured with Napa Valley wines, spent debating your own ferment with people who were standing in it beside you four hours earlier.
Winemaker dinner · Day 4 evening
The four-day Napa schedule, September 13–16, 2027: picking and sorting, crush, punchdowns and pumpovers, then barrel down. Wine is agriculture, so the exact order shifts with the fruit — that's true for every Napa winemaker in September, and now it's true for you. This is the shape of the week.
Not a meet-and-greet — an induction. You're issued your Winemaker Toolkit and you sit down with your head winemaker to lay out the mission for the week: which block, which lot, what you're trying to make.
Game day. Picking in the morning, crush pad by midday, palate work in the afternoon.
The supply chain in the morning, the cellar in the afternoon — the two halves of every decision that ends up in the bottle.
The longest day and the one everyone talks about afterwards. It ends at the table, with the winemaker dinner.
* These are sample activities. What you actually do each day is decided by that year's fruit development — the same call every Napa winemaker makes in September.
The bootcamp ends at 8:30pm on Thursday, September 16, after the winemaker dinner — book flights from there.
Your lot ships to you once it is bottled, not at the end of the four days — barrel ageing comes first. This is the part no tasting room can sell you. The lot you picked keeps fermenting after you fly home, our Napa team keeps caring for it, and you stay in the loop the whole way to bottling.
You get progress reports on your specific vintage as it moves through barrel to bottling — not a generic newsletter, your wine.
Your team picks the name and the design, and a graphic artist turns it into a real label. It goes on the bottle. It has your vintage on it.
When the wine is finished, we get bottles of it to you. We'll be in touch nearer the time to sort out the details.
A downloadable certificate of completion — proof you didn't visit the valley, you worked a harvest in it.
“Ditch the tasting room. Grab the boots. Join the crew.”
DipWSET · AIWS · Winemaker
Associate Winemaker, Beringer Vineyards · Instructor, Napa Valley Wine Academy
Csilla grew up in Budapest and got the wine bug running tastings at her brother's wine shop. She left law school for a five-year Masters in Fermentation Science and Post-Harvest Technologies, then took a harvest in Sonoma — Zinfandel, Cabernet, Chardonnay, at Ravenswood — and never went back.
Harvests in Italy, Hungary, New Zealand and Napa followed, plus years in winemaking labs pulling apart what actually makes a wine work. She's been at Beringer Vineyards since 2007, starting as an Enologist and now an Associate Winemaker with several labels under her supervision. Tramping vineyards, tasting ferments mid-stream and assembling final blends are the parts she likes best.
She holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma, and she is leading the September 2027 crew — this is the week she gets to hand all of it to you at once.
IMPORTANT: Don't use your own account's email address for other students.
Each student must have its own email address for course access and communication purposes.
What the $3,995 covers: all cellar and vineyard work, instruction, lunch every day, transport once you're here, and the winemaker dinner. Your bed and your flights are not.
The harvest experience in Napa in September was transformative for me. The hands-on time in the vineyard and in the winery made all of the concepts come alive.
Marilyn F. · Charlotte, NC · Napa Harvest Bootcamp
It was great to get one's hands into the vats and one's palate onto so many wines. Very helpful, and very human.
Ian W. · Honolulu, HI · Napa Harvest Bootcamp
Learning from actual winemakers in the Harvest Bootcamp — a real-world learning program unique to the Academy. And a full-blown winemakers dinner.
Richard Hoy · Tampa, FL · Napa Harvest Bootcamp
No. Beginners and Diploma students both do this bootcamp and both get a lot out of it — the winemaker explains terms and processes as they come up, on the job. You need to be 21 or older.
Genuinely physical. Picking in the morning heat, standing at a sorting table, lifting, and punchdowns that use your whole body. Days 2 and 3 run about nine to five; Day 4 runs from mid-morning until after the winemaker dinner. If you're comfortable on your feet for a long day, you're fine.
Lodging isn't included and you book your own, and getting yourself to and from Napa is on you — flights and airport transfers. Once the bootcamp is running, transport is covered: every working day you move between the vineyards, the wineries and the supplier visits with the crew. We keep a list of places we send people to — email support@napavalleywineacademy.com and we'll share our hotel recommendations.
Not for a while — your lot still has barrel ageing and bottling ahead of it, and that is the point. You'll get updates on its progress as it goes, and we'll be in touch about getting bottles to you once it's finished.
No. Winemaker Bootcamp is a hands-on production experience, and you receive a downloadable Winemaker Bootcamp certificate of completion. It isn't a WSET award and there's no exam. If a qualification is what you want, WSET Level 1, 2 and 3 in Wines are the route — and plenty of people do both.
Yes, and it's cheaper. The rate drops as you add places — see the Enroll More, Save More table above. Everyone works the same crew.
Two working production wineries in prime Napa Valley AVAs. We confirm and announce the exact sites closer to the dates, because harvest timing decides which cellars have the fruit and the space for a crew — the same reason your own picking day moves. You'll know well before you travel.
Our standard cancellation and refund terms apply — they're set out in full in our Terms & Conditions. If your plans change, email us as early as you can and we'll tell you exactly where you stand.
Closed-toe shoes or boots you don't love, clothes you're happy to stain permanently, a hat, sunscreen and a water bottle. September in Napa is hot in the afternoon and cool at dawn — layers.
Winemaker Bootcamp runs once a year, at harvest: September 13–16, 2027, $3,995, no experience required. Four days. One crew. A vintage with your name on it, arriving at your door long after you've flown home.
Winemaker Bootcamp: Napa Valley · September 13–16, 2027 · $3,995 per person. Group rates apply automatically as places are added. Attendees must be 21 years of age or older.
Wine is an agricultural product. The order and timing of activities depends on the fruit and may change without notice; the itinerary above is representative of a typical bootcamp. Completion earns a downloadable Winemaker Bootcamp certificate; this is not a WSET qualification and there is no examination.
Cancellation, transfer and refund terms are as published in our Terms & Conditions.
Four days inside a working Napa harvest, Sep 13-16, 2027
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