One of the first signs that the agricultural year is headed toward another stage is the annual Healdsburg Crush, held this year on Oct. 11. In winemaking, “crush” is not only an act essential to the art and industry of viticulture, but a term for the seasonal turn from growing to winemaking, of harvesting the grapes and releasing their juice and pulp so fermentation can begin.
One familiar form of crush is the “barrel stomp,” an indiscriminate barefoot crushing of grapes still on their pips, often accompanied by skirt-lifting gaiety. Naturally such a seasonal occasion is ripe for celebration, and in the Sonoma Valley they make a big deal of the Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival Grape Stomp—held this year on Sept. 26.
The Healdsburg Crush is a less giddy but not entirely serious gathering of area wineries, some 60 of them this year, offering samples and insight into their 2026 releases and harvest. Originally branded as “Pinot on the River” in about 2005 and limited to pinot-only wineries, the wine list was broadened in 2019 to include chardonnay and sparkling wines. “We wanted to have a couple of options for the white-wine drinkers,” said Hayley Bly, director of development for the Clubs.
This year’s participating wineries list runs from Amista to Wrath alphabetically, and is geographically far broader than our local valleys.
That last-named wine, Wrath, is a Santa Lucia Highlands label, an example of the surprises and unknowns found every year at Healdsburg Crush. Though held in the heart of Healdsburg, the Crush is not a Sonoma-only gathering. Napa County is well represented, as is Mendocino—Anderson Valley’s Bashley Vineyards is one “bottle sponsor” for the event, the other being Bob Cabral Wines of Healdsburg.
“I’ve been involved with Healdsburg Crush for years,” Cabral said. “What makes Crush special is the way wine lovers, winemakers and the community come together for a shared purpose.”
That shared purpose is something even larger than wine appreciation. Healdsburg Crush is the biggest annual fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma County, its proceeds serving more than 11,000 children countywide through support of after-school programs, summer camps and essential resources in more than 30 Clubs throughout Sonoma County, from Geyserville to Petaluma.
Funding for the remodeled Healdsburg Boys & Girls Club has a good head start—it’s raised over $12.6 million of the $16 million needed, but this year’s Healdsburg Crush can make a big difference.
“Healdsburg Crush will be really about exposure for the clubhouse, just letting people know who we are and that we have a brand-new clubhouse coming in next year,” Bly said. She hopes to “net about $260,000” from this year’s event.
New Venue
This year Healdsburg Crush will be held in a new location: at Bacchus Landing, where a half-dozen wineries have permanent spaces and an expansive open-air piazza, bocce courts and a full-service event center that attracts Wine Country events year-round.
“We have hosted multiple large-scale wine events with Sonoma County Vintners, most notably the Sonoma County Barrel Auction, which brought over 65 wineries to our property,” said Monica Lopez of Aldina Winery, which has managed the property since its opening. “We feel very comfortable hosting an event of this scale.”
That Healdsburg Crush moved a mile down Westside Road seems, in retrospect, only natural. The only other possibility was the Community Pavilion, a City of Healdsburg property.
A dozen food vendors will have their carts, trucks and kitchens up and running on Sunday, for meals from barbecue to caviar, cheeses to cookies. Parking is available on site, and a free shuttle service will run to and from Healdsburg City Hall until 5pm that Sunday.
When the City of Healdsburg’s Community Services Department changed direction on public events and requested they all leave the Plaza in favor of the new Foley Family Community Pavilion, one of the last to give up its space was Healdsburg Crush. Eventually the obvious trump card was played, that Crush would be the only paid admission event on the Plaza all year around, a distinction that became less appealing as time went on. It finally proved an impossible and unnecessary conflict to perpetuate, and Healdsburg Crush decided to move on.
The Healdsburg Arts Festival was another event formerly held in the Plaza which was forced to recalibrate for its event this year, held just last month on Sept. 26. A relatively concise collection of arts and crafts vendors took part, primarily lined up on East Street in the block immediately north of the Plaza. “We had great crowds; many came over from the Farmers Market. It was very convenient for us [as it was] right in front of the gallery,” said Kathy Birdsong of the Healdsburg Center for the Arts, the event’s organizer. “Vendors were happy.”
Wine with a Purpose
Some find a wine-tasting event on the scale of Healdsburg Crush an odd way to raise money for kids too young to vote—let alone drink—but Jennifer Weiss, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma-Marin, has an answer for that. “By bringing together wine lovers, vintners and supporters from across the region, we can create life-changing opportunities for local children and teens.”
After all many wineries began as family businesses, and many remain so even during an uncertain economic slide for the industry as a whole. Some wineries are bound to be visually undiscoverable without occasions such as Healdsburg Crush, and willing wine explorers who expect to find their horizons broadened by a visit to Healdsburg.
The impact of a successful Healdsburg Crush will be felt locally, and soon: The flagship Healdsburg Clubhouse on Piper Street is currently being rebuilt from the ground up, on schedule for an opening date of summer 2027.
A few VIP tickets are still available at bgcsonoma-marin.org/healdsburgcrush.
