The North Fork's harvest season is usually something Long Islanders watch from a tasting room porch, glass in hand, while someone else does the work in the rows. RGNY is flipping that script this year, opening its 2026 Harvest Series and inviting the public to actually get their hands into the season, not just sip the results of it.

RGNY, the Riverhead winery at 6025 Sound Avenue led by CEO Maria Rivero Gonzalez, has built the Harvest Series around four events that trace the arc of the season from vine to celebration, each with its own date already set for 2026. Tickets are handled through the winery's website, and the lineup runs in order as summer turns to harvest and the season winds down into remembrance.

It opens with Dinner in the Vines on Saturday, August 15, a multi-course dinner prepared by Chef Noah Schwartz and served outdoors beside the vines as summer winds down, built around seasonal fare and RGNY's own wine.

Next comes the Stomp Party on Sunday, October 4, the event's most joyfully chaotic stop. Guests get to try their own feet at the old-world tradition of grape stomping, barefoot and unbothered by decorum, with live salsa music and wine flowing through the afternoon. It is the kind of party that turns a wine harvest into an actual celebration, purple toes and all.

Then comes Help Us Harvest on Saturday, October 24, a hands-on picking day where members of the public roll up their sleeves and hand-pick grapes destined for RGNY's 2026 vintages, learning about sustainable winemaking along the way. It is a rare chance to do the actual work behind a bottle of wine, out in the vineyard rows on the North Fork rather than watching from a distance, and to walk away having played a small part in a vintage that will end up on tables months or years from now.

The series closes with Dia de los Muertos on Saturday, November 7, a post-harvest celebration RGNY describes as honoring life, death, and legacy through music, ceremonial fire, wine, and tradition. Coming right after the picking and the stomping, it gives the season a fitting final note, less about the grapes themselves and more about what the harvest has always represented: endings that make room for what comes next.

Regular admission for the series runs $163.13 including tax after early bird pricing ends September 1, with each individual event ticketed separately through RGNY's website. Interested readers can also reach the winery directly by phone at 631-298-0075 or by email at [email protected] to reserve a spot or ask about pricing.

There is something worth savoring in RGNY opening its rows to the public like this. Late summer and fall on the North Fork have a particular quality of light, gold and low over the vines along Sound Avenue, the air carrying that first hint of the cooler nights to come. Picture the season running from an August dinner under the stars to stomp-stained feet in October to a candlelit toast to those who came before in November, all on the same stretch of Riverhead earth.