Service

Harvest and cellar crews in Napa Valley

Crush pad crews, cellar hands, harvest interns, lab techs and forklift-certified operators who show up trained, on time, and stay through the last bin.

Season August through November for harvest and crush. Bottling and racking crews in spring.

Book a 15-minute call See how it works
A harvest worker carries crates of grapes through a vineyard

Roles we place

The people behind a good harvest and cellar operation.

  • Crush pad crew

    Sorting, destemmer, press, bin handling. Day and night shifts.

  • Cellar hand

    Pump-overs, racking, barrel work, additions, sanitation. Returning hands where possible.

  • Harvest intern

    Seasonal, often enology and hospitality students, paired with experienced cellar hands.

  • Night-shift sorters

    Fruit sorting and crush support when the fruit comes in cold.

  • Lab technician

    Brix, pH, TA and SO2 analysis, sample runs, clean records.

  • Forklift operator

    Certified, comfortable with bins, barrels and tight crush pads.

  • Bottling line crew

    Spring bottling support: line feeding, case packing, QC.

What we screen for

Vetted before you meet them.

Every candidate is interviewed in person and reference-checked. For this category we also verify the following before day one.

  • Forklift certification for operators, verified before the first shift.
  • Physical readiness: lifting 50 pounds repeatedly, standing 10-hour shifts, working in the cold at 4am.
  • Sanitation standards and tank safety awareness.
  • Prior harvest experience where the role requires it, and pairing first-timers with returning hands where it does not.
  • Availability for the full window, in writing. Crews that leave in week three do not come back on our list.

How engagements work

One event, a season, or a hire.

Full harvest crew
A crush pad and cellar team for the whole season, one point of contact.
Surge support
Extra hands for the weeks the fruit all comes in at once.
Night shift
Dedicated sorting and crush crews for overnight picks.
Temp-to-hire cellar hands
Try a cellar hand through crush, keep the good ones.

Typical requests

What this looks like in practice.

  • “A six-person crush pad crew, night shift, five weeks, St. Helena.”

  • “Two cellar hands, temp-to-hire, Oakville.”

  • “A harvest lab technician, ten weeks, Napa.”

Two harvest workers carry a tray of grapes between vineyard rows
Stainless steel fermentation tanks in a winery cellar

Questions

Questions about harvest and cellar staffing.

All questions and answers
When should we book harvest crews?

June or July for an August start. Wineries that book early get first pick of returning crews; we still fill last-minute needs in season from standby lists.

Do your crews have harvest experience?

Crews mix returning cellar hands with first-timers who are paired and supervised. Roles that need experience, like cellar hands and lab techs, only get experienced people.

Can you staff night shifts?

Yes. Night sorting and crush crews are a standard request and are scheduled as dedicated teams.

Related services

Need harvest and cellar staff? Let’s talk dates.

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