Posted on 10/15/2017 9:57:49 AM PDT by dennisw
Burned to the ground: Inside the Napa wineries gutted by raging wildfires that has devastated the $63billion industry and killed 40 people
The wildfires, the deadliest in California history, have claimed 40 lives so far and have destroyed an estimated 5,700 properties
More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Sonoma, Napa, Santa Rosa and Calistoga Entire neighborhoods have been leveled and 214,000 acres of land has been reduced to ash Among the most high-profile victims of the disaster has been the area’s wine-making industry
In Napa County alone, the industry contributes $13bn to the local economy each year and $50bn to the national coffers Nicholson’s Ranch winery in Sonoma and the Paras Vineyard on the flank of Mount Veeder sustained serious damage to properties
While wineries suffered property damage to buildings, the vineyards - the lifeblood of the industry - have largely been spared
Ninety per cent of the grape harvest in Sonoma and Napa Counties had already been picked when the fires ignited so smoke damage to fruit has been minimal 'I’m always trying to find a brighter side to it all – it could have been a lot worse for us,' said Ray Signorello, the owner of the Signorello Estate
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It was late on Sunday evening when Ray Signorello realized something was wrong. His wife Tanya, had spotted flames coming down the hillside towards their Napa Valley wine estate.
The first warning came at 10.45pm - less than an hour later, the winery building containing the family home was on fire and the Signorellos had fled.
By Monday morning, nothing was left of the colonnaded winery building but a blackened heap of rubble dotted with exploded glass bottles, while a formerly picturesque stretch of olive trees on the hill behind had been badly burned.
‘The fire was fueled by 50mph winds so there wasn’t much to stop it,’ Signorello, 54, told DailyMail.com.
‘Fortunately we didn’t have anybody injured here – that’s the most important thing.’
The 40-year-old Signorello Estate, which produces between 5,000 and 6,000 cases of wine each year, is one of 16 wineries wrecked by the monster blazes that have ravaged northern California over the past week.
All that air pollution being released into the California air from mother nature. How sad. Too bad.
And are wine grapes and olive trees indigenous to this area, or are they invasive species introduced by man to upset the delicate balance of nature?
< /ecosarcasm >
I guess its going to be normal for a hint of smoke to be included within the taste of the wine for a good while.
My heart hurts so bad for these people. There are a lot of old line families that have small vineyards that are totally destroyed.
Yeah, now all those left coast elitists who like to hang out with their peers in “wine country” will be feeling pretty downtrodden and seeking shelter in their well stocked safe spaces, I suppose.
Does anyone know, if a vineyard burns, will the grapevine roots resprout, or do they have to be replanted?
All this because California democrats failed to manage their resources properly.
I see you live up to your user name.
Why isnt this disaster getting more news coverage?
Where are those 100,000 evacuated people?
Where are the networks?
Where is the POTUS?
More dead here than in Puerto Rico!
This is truly awful yet we are still getting press coverage about the feminazi mayor of San Juan Puerto Rico accusing Trump of genocide and racism
Well, in that Keanu Reeves remake of an old Euro film, after the fire, all but one root-stock was dead, so they’d have to replant off that surviving root.
That’s real clever, but you didn’t answer my question.
Well...it looks like Ripple for Thanksgiving.
Hey! Get a clue. California seceded. Call Guvnah Moonbeam. He declared Fornia a sanctuary state. You don’t need nothin from them steenkin 49 other states.
This is probably incomplete information, but wine grapes aren't commercially grown from seed as much as they are grafted onto root stock with whatever varietal is desired for that vineyard section. My guess is that there are already phone calls going out to vineyards in France (where California transplants saved French wineries years ago), South America, and Australia to get new rootstock and grafts. The wine will be back to 'normal' in a few seasons. Many heroic recovery stories are already being envisioned by the winery owners. Insurance companies are going to raise rates on agricultural fire insurance, and more non-wine fields will be converted or proced out of farming in California. It's hard to be a pig farmer when growing grapes is so much more profitable.
One thing I always disliked about California wines was the pricing. They charged what they thought they could get for a bottle, vice what it made sense to charge based on quality or other market factors. An otherwise twenty dollar bottle of wine would be sold for fifty or more dollars just because it was a fancy brand in the right county. Of course this is capitalism (as practiced by anticapitalists in many cases) so if they can do it, let them. I'm sure pleas for bailouts will come before the end of the year, with small farmer and non wine growers lining up far behind the politically connected and bigger grower operations.
Well, see, it’s realisticly hard to pin this on Trump. So..it doesn’t fit withe the Trash Trump narrative.
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