I hope its only once in 50 years but on the 6PM call last night they indicated more potential for dry lightning on Sunday PM/Monday as well as increased winds. Sheriffs went out door to door Thursday night telling my neighbors to leave. That was enough prompting for us. I can see the fire from my house its not close but if the wind picked up in the right direction it could be at my house in a few hours. We live ready to evacuate and ready to go except I decided to move my wine offsite. With recommendations from Larry and Alan I stated moving into Wine Bank yesterday and should be done today. As soon that’s done we are headed out for Utah to escape Dante’s Inferno for a while. Good luck to all… At 2% contained on 8/22 there 0% chance this will be contained by 9/1. I’ll be surprised if this is contained by 9/30 and things are very localized but I still think much of the 2020 SCM Harvest is ruined. One vineyard manager had indicated Ascona has been spaired the smoke so far, so there certainly is hope and diverse enough geography that hopefully some areas will emerge unaffected. Totally concerned for McHeny, Big Basin, Bougregard, and La Beuf vineyards. They are in the thick of it. I personally spent a fair amount of time getting to know Bernie and working at La Beuf vineyard last season and I am heart broken over whats happening right now.
Thanks for the good wishes for folks affected I’m not close the the Santa Cruz Mountains fire, but I am a bit north of another large fire called the SCU Lightning Complex. But I think it’s unlikely we will be evacuated, I’m in the middle of the flatland where there is less fuel (other than houses) and the fire is easier to fight. We would need a very high wind to bring it here.
And this is not even the true fire season. I live on the east hills of San Jose and we are on the edge of an evacuation zone. An area the size of Rhode Island is burning 10 miles to the east of me. We woke to the lightning storm and knew we were in trouble as we could count the rain drop and there were more lightening strikes than rain drops. Smoke taint is likely the least of the worries of many Santa Cruz Mtn wineries. Holding on to the vineyards at all is the crisis. I doubt if harvesting had started and this crop may be lost.
There’s some. We got some unobtainable Saratoga Chard for my friend’s label. Perfect ripeness for him, but earlier than they would usually pick for themselves.
With all the heat, a lot of stuff is two weeks earlier than normal. Outside of the huge areas that are already screwed, Anything just into its picking window is coming off. Of course there are varieties and sites that are far from ripe, where smoke taint will be an issue. Could be 95% crop loss.
Many homes have already been lost, including some of winery workers. Some historic old vines sites could burn up. The big picture is our industry is just a sliver of the devastation, but that’s a window to what others are experiencing. Some people and businesses are situated where they can overcome a big hit pretty well, others aren’t at all.
Thanks Larry!
This is tough to be sure. Most importantly, everyone is safe and sound. Our crew at Horseshoe has moved to my house so out of harms way. Given the latest VIIRS information, I am cautiously optimistic that we will not have fire damage at Alpine and Horseshoe which would be a great relief. We have almost certainly lost the majority of our 2020 crop but things could be worse. My biggest source of distress is currently Aeris Centennial Mountain vineyard, where the fire is moving up the adjacent hillside so damage is almost certain.
I hope you keep dodging the worst bullets in the SCM, and that the Centennial vineyard doesn’t haven’t enough fuel to do much damage.
Wishing other wineries, vineyards, and just plain folks well, too, it’s a pretty nasty situation out there and comes on top of so many other difficult circumstances.
I saw a pic of PN coming off Peter Martin Ray Vyd in Saratoga from Wednesday. Ridge has picked at least some of their Monte Bello Chard (stupid facebook is refusing to show the post).
Sorry if it’s behind a paywall but the winery is still standing.
For days, Bradley Brown was anxiously waiting to learn the fate of his property in Boulder Creek. After a mandatory evacuation was issued for the area on Tuesday, the winemaker was camping out in his RV at a friend’s house. Tracking fire maps, he could see that his home and his winery, Big Basin Vineyards, were directly in the line of the CZU August Lightning Complex fires.
Late Saturday night, Brown learned from a neighbor that his house was destroyed. Miraculously, the winery — and, along with it, his wine inventory — had survived.
My heart goes out to all those affected by the fires.