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Posted on 10/14/2005 4:45:52 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NAPA, Calif. (AP) - California wine country was reeling after a huge warehouse fire wiped out millions worth of rare vintages.
No one was seriously injured in the fire, the cause of which was still under investigation, and the losses weren't expected to put a big dent in the state's multibillion-dollar wine industry.
But for some, the potential loss of years of effort and hope spelled big trouble.
"It is a terrible thing," said Gary Lipp, who suspects that most of his 2003 cabernet sauvignon and all of his 2004 pinot noir are gone.
Lipp and Brooks Painter, both wine industry veterans, started the small Coho Wines brand three years ago and had been getting good reviews.
They still have some wine stored in another warehouse and some in barrels. But the new wine will have to be aged at least 18 months before it can be sold, meaning stalled momentum during the crucial holiday period.
"We'll send letters to our customers telling them we look forward to seeing them again in the spring of 2007," said Lipp with resigned good humor. He's hopeful he'll be able to keep the brand going although he predicts a tough couple of years.
The same dilemma was facing Julie Johnson of the Tres Sabores winery in St. Helena, a premium producer of cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel.
Johnson, who's been building up the brand for seven years, stored half of her 2002 vintage and all of her 2003 in the warehouse. That includes most of her cabernet sauvignon, savored by fans for its fruit-forward flavor underpinned with the tannic spice known as "Rutherford dust," from the area's famous growing soils.
"I'm really hoping that it's just water damage," Johnson said. "I buy the best corks in the business just for such an eventuality. If it's just label damage, then I'll have a huge party and everyone can come and relabel."
The fire broke out Wednesday afternoon in the warehouse, which is on the old Navy shipyard of Mare Island in Vallejo, just south of the Napa Valley and about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco.
Warehouse general manager Debbie Polverino was there when alarms started going off. "I turned around and saw this huge wall of orange," she said as she sat outside the warehouse Thursday afternoon, her jeans blackened with soot.
Structural damage from the fire, which took about eight hours to control, was estimated at $10 million, said Vallejo fire department spokesman Bill Tweedy. Losses to the contents of the building were unknown, although Polverino estimated it could be in the tens of millions.
Wine doesn't have a high enough alcohol content to burn, said Tweedy, but the bottles are packaged in cardboard boxes and wooden shelving that fed the flames.
Wines stored in the building ranged from huge chunks of smaller wineries' inventories to "library" collections of rare vintages. Even if bottles are intact, it's feared high temperatures will have spoiled the wine.
Agents with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau will eventually determine if the wine is ruined, Tweedy said.
The fire is being regarded as suspicious partly because the building appeared to be fire-resistant, a dense, concrete structure once used to repair submarines.
About 70 wineries leased space in the building, which also stored sugar and other food products.
A team from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives planned to begin investigating Saturday. That effort was expected to last until early next week, after which people would be allowed in to inspect property damage, Tweedy said.
While she waited, Johnson was busy with this year's harvest, in full swing right now.
"If it turns out that I've lost my 2003 vintage and part of my 2002 so be it," she said in a message to friends and customers. "There are some really lovely 2004 wines ready and waiting to be sprung from their barrels in the cave."
Calls and e-mails of support and sympathy were pouring in and Johnson was hopeful.
"You just have to keep the perspective," she said, "and you have to keep going."
Click to be added or removed.Wine news ping.
Actually, a REAL tragedy for yours truly would have been if this happenned to Louis Martini, Stag's Leap, or Joseph Phelps. Coho puts out some good stuff and I'm pulling for them to get through this.
I may be an agnostic, but wine and olive oil make me believe that their is a God.
I've always wondered: How do California Freepers view their wine industry?
Trivia: The first commercial vineyards in California were NOT in Napa or Sonoma, but in LOS ANGELES!
Wine that has been heated is junk, and the growers had better make sure that the surviving bottles are destroyed or their future sales of new vintages will be tarnished.
Now there's a government job I'd do.
BTW: Watch the already high price of Alexander Valley Cabernet (and other Napa appellations) go through the roof.
Alcohol, Tobacco, & Firearms: The OTHER Holy Trinity.
LO. That's gonna be one heckuva party. ;)
"Oh the humanity!"
are they crying over spilt grape juice?
Los Angeles - or Los Angeles County i.e. Ontario/Pomona area ?
Of course, this was more than a century ago.
If the damaged wines are insured, and the prices for surviving wines from the vintage soar, some wineries stand to make a tidy profit on this event.
I live in Napa. Make and sell wine. My partner just moved his 2002 and 2003 inventory to this supposedly "fire-proof" facility just two months ago. I preferred to pay a bit more to have my wines closer. Whew!
Everyone up here is wondering how in the hell a solid concrete structure could go up in flames. The managers advertised this place as having a "State-of-the-art" fire detection system. I'm guessing it's arson. Someone short of cash insures his inventory for "retail" value then torches the place.
The industry side is kinda fun. Napa culture is totally centered on food and drink but that's reasonably healthy. Napa's a nice place to live and work. People are friendly and there's surprisingly little of the snobbery you might expect. Industry people are mostly blue collar.
That can't be said for some of the nouveau riche arrivistes who are a rather liberal bunch. Even so, it's a tolerant, prosperous place good for raising a family.
By the way, Alexander Valley is in Sonoma County. I doubt the fire will have much effect on wine prices. There's a bit too much inventory all around.
But see where De Villipean (sp?) was at the time.
"The fire is being regarded as suspicious partly because the building appeared to be fire-resistant, a dense, concrete structure once used to repair submarines. "
Thank God that their was no submarine in there.
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