Following the Passion: Meet the 2026 Tablas Creek Harvest Interns

Every year, we sit down to meet the Tablas Creek harvest crew, and every year we’re reminded that there’s no single, straight path into the cellar. Some folks follow a rigid roadmap, while others find their way here simply by following their curiosity, a craving for a fresh start, and a deep love for great wine. Our Harvest 2026 crew definitely belongs to that second camp—they might not have ironclad five-year plans, but they bring plenty of heart, infectious energy, and serious hustle to the crush pad.

This vintage, we welcomed three fantastic interns to the team. There’s Cooper, a Paso native and seasoned globe-trotting "harvest hopper" tackling his 12th vintage; Hannah, who traded running wine bars in Alabama for boots-on-the-ground cellar work after a glowing referral from a past intern; and Colton, a former litigation paralegal who decided life was too short not to chase his passion, taking a leap of faith straight to our sorting table.

Between digging out tanks, perfecting forklift moves, and debating the merits of Cooper’s hawks versus fluffy Highland cows, they’ve already two months into harvest. We broke this interview down by individual so you can get to know them one by one. Grab a glass and meet the crew:

What's your name? Cooper Austin.

What are you doing here? I'm a harvest intern for Tables Creek.

What's your favorite animal? Oh God. My favorite animal is a Cooper's Hawk. Because they look really cool. I think it's actually a red-tailed hawk. They have a really cool screech.

On a scale of one to 10, how much do you like wine? Ooh, probably nine and a half.

How did you get into wine? I went to a career fair in college because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. Then I got offered a job as an intern in Healdsburg in the vineyards. I found out you could harvest hop to the Southern hemisphere in between harvests. I'd always wanted to go back to Australia. And after that, I harvest hopped around and fell in love with it. So now I'm here.

How many harvests have you done? I think this is my 12th, I believe. Yeah, 12. I did one in Australia, one in New Zealand, a bunch here. I ended up coming back to Paso Robles since I grew up here, but I've never actually done a harvest in Paso.

How'd you end up at Tablas? Recently, the winery I worked at in Sonoma got shut down, so I decided to reach out to Chelsea because I love Tablas Creek and she was nice enough to offer me the internship.

What's your part of harvest so far? Ooh, that's hard. Probably the harvest lunches, but I do love doing pulsars and digging out red tanks because I can really go ham and get that tank dug out as fast as possible.

What's the best bottle of wine you've ever had? The best bottle of wine I ever had was a 2013 Grenache from Kaena down in Los Olivos. It was more about the situation. I feel like the situation really improves the wine you have, and it was just a beautiful bottle of wine at a beautiful moment.

What's your five-year plan? My five-year plan? I don't know. Becoming a winemaker, maybe here. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. I'd love to become an assistant winemaker somewhere. Maybe do one more harvest in New Zealand.

What else do you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience? Just drink Tablas wine. It's amazing. I love the balance, and Paso Robles is up and coming. So drink Paso wine.

What's your name? My name is Hannah.

What are you doing here? I'm a harvest intern.

How's that going? It's going great. I'm having a blast.

What's your favorite animal? A Highland cow, because they're so cute and fuzzy, and I've petted them before. They're really cute. I went to Scotland several years ago, and the one thing I wanted to do was pet the cows, and I got to do that twice.

On a scale of one to 10, how much do you like wine? 10.

How'd you get into wine? Back in 2020, I was living in Alabama, managing two wine bars. We had a wine club that allowed me to meet a lot of winemakers and people in the wine industry. Those experiences started my interest, and I just couldn't stop liking it. Now I'm here.

How'd you end up working here at Tablas Creek? One of my good friends, Elena, did this internship three years ago. She said it was amazing, and she had the best time. She told me, "Apply, do it now." So I listened, and now I'm here.

How's it going so far? I love it. I'm having a blast. Everyone's great. I was worried that it was going to be me and a bunch of 22-year-olds, but we're actually all around the same age, which is great. We're having a lot of fun.

What's your favorite part of harvest so far? I really liked stomping the grapes in the bin. That was fun. I like digging out the tanks. That's fun. I like doing the DMAs.

Best bottle of wine you ever had? I don't know if I've had it yet. I mean, I had this really fun bottle when I was in San Francisco, and I can't remember the name of it, but I have a picture of it. It was a Tempranillo, which was fun; I think it was from the Sonoma area, and I thought it was interesting.

What's your five-year plan? Hopefully land a job where I can work the cellar side. I came from the tasting room side, so maybe I can find a job that's a little bit of both.

What do you like more? I think I like the cellar more, but I'm not a morning person. I'm working on it. That's the only problem.

What else do you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience? Keep drinking wine. We need you guys to keep drinking wine. It's the best.

 What's your name? Colton Gover.

What are you doing here? Currently sorting grapes and going into an open top. I am a harvest intern.

What's your favorite animal? Probably a Highland cow. Because I think they're so adorable and cute.

On a scale of one to 10, how much do you like wine? 11

How'd you get into wine? I've always been interested in wine. I grew up in Mendocino County, so I was always surrounded by vineyards. My babysitter growing up was a vineyard manager, so I spent a lot of time in the vineyard, and I've just always taken to it.

How'd you end up working this harvest? Is this your first harvest? This is my first harvest. I got in because I wanted a career change. I'm a former litigation paralegal and just wanted a change of pace and change of scenery.

How did you end up working at Tablas Creek? I was trying to figure out what I wanted my life to be like one day, and I started randomly searching for wine jobs because I knew I wanted to be in the industry. I came across the cellar intern position online, and I said, "Why not?" I applied for it, and I ended up working here two weeks later.

How's harvest going so far? It's great. It's been very chill. It's not super crazy. It's been very manageable compared to last year's harvest, so I hear.

What's your favorite part of harvest so far? Definitely driving the forklift and working on my stacking bin game.

What's the best bottle of wine you've ever had? That would be a 2019 Nelle Grenache from Paso. It was just really delicious. It had nice fruit, nice body, and they. I don't know. I remember really liking it, and I always told myself that was the best bottle of wine I ever had.

What's your five-year plan? I don't know what I'm doing in the next five minutes. Five-year plan: probably finish my winemaking certificate at UC Davis and keep getting more cellar and winemaking experience.

What else do you want to share with the Tablas Creek audience? That life is too short to not do what makes you happy and follow your passions.