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Every late summer and early Fall, a beautiful chapter begins to open up across vineyards in the Northern Hemisphere.

Families, neighbors, seasonal workers, and curious travelers gather in every wine region to harvest the year’s grapes, with many natural vineyards still picking the old school way: by hand only, and with no machines in site – making sure the fruit doesn’t bruise and nothing affects the flavor. The days begin early, hands become sticky and stained, long celebratory meals are hosted between the vines, and entire villages celebrate the beginning of a new vintage.

What many people don’t realize is that you don’t have to be a winemaker—or even know anything about wine—to join in. Across France, Italy, Spain, and beyond, vineyards welcome volunteers and visitors during harvest season, no experience needed. Some will welcome you for a few hours or a day, others invite you to pitch a tent or stay for a week, and in exchange for helping to pick grapes they’ll provide meals, wine, wages, accommodation, or simply the chance to experience one of Europe’s oldest traditions from the inside.

If you happen to be taking a trip in Europe between late August and early October this year – scroll down to see if your trip coincides with any of the harvests at my favorite vineyards. And if it’s too late to make it happen this year – bookmark these for 2027! (My ultimate goal with this Substack is to begin organizing food & wine trips in the future – so make sure you’re following if you’d want to join us!)

My first time participating in a harvest was truly magical – and came out of the blue as I hadn’t previously known this was an experience open to me. I’d been gifted a wine tasting at a small family vineyard by my partner, where we roamed the small acreage of vines and sampled the wine that they produced – and even brought the family dog in tow, who got to frolic with the resident vineyard doggos. At the end of the tasting, the woman mentioned their upcoming harvest & how 50+ volunteers had already been gathered to chip in. She asked: any interest? And a month later we were back – this time, clippers in hand. With this, my love for the harvest was officially born, and it’s now a goal of mine to participate every year possible – especially in Southern Europe, where the vineyards are among the most beautiful in the world.

If you enjoy drinking wine – and as long as you are able-bodied enough to endure a day of manual labor – this is truly an experience I’d recommend at least once in your lifetime. You’ll make incredible connections chatting away as you clip and inspect. You’ll get to try the wine and feast between the vines as the celebration at the end of the day. You may get to meet the farm animals onsite, or get a tour of the estate, or even do some stomping (depending on the vineyard). And you’ll understand wine from a completely new angle at the end – you’ll even get to look forward to buying a future bottle from grapes you helped pick by hand.

The dates of harvest change each year, depending on how warm the weather’s been that summer – and some harvests at notable, or small, vineyards do fill up quickly – so you’ll want to contact them as early as possible to get in.

See my list below!

Note that the following is a list of the vineyards I personally recommend – and decidedly NOT a comprehensive list of every vineyard in Southern Europe to consider. Specifically, my list includes natural wine harvests only – because why would you want to visit large commercial vineyards which use pesticides or add crazy amounts of sugar for no reason?

Southern Europe is rife with small, family-run vineyards that have been making wine the old school way for centuries – as well as countless new wine farmers getting into the industry to keep the traditional methods alive – and to me, that’s the only kind of vineyard experience I want. A lot of these places are so friendly that you can bring a caravan and stay a while, and share lunch at the same table as the owners. There’s no pretentious wine world snobbery here – just welcoming people, a true love for farming and viticulture, and one of the most memorable vacation experiences you’ll ever have.

Read on for my favorites, and do let me know in the comments if you’ve ever been to a harvest, or book one of my recommendations, or would like to in the future!!

🍋 Nicoletta in Europe x