San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Virus cases rising as Wine Country opens
Tasting rooms are open again in Napa and Sonoma counties, with fewer visitors and appointmentonly policies. Restaurants are hosting diners indoors, and Sonoma County began allowing hotels and shortterm rental facilities to open Friday to leisure travelers. Napa County hotels are open, too.
But as Wine Country limps back to life, concerns about a coronavirus resurgence remain strong. Over the sevenday period through Friday, Napa added more 48 cases — more than onefifth of its total case count since the pandemic began — and Sonoma added 113 cases, or 13.5% of its total case count.
“How could you not be nervous?” said Renae Perry, coowner of Papapietro Perry Winery in Healdsburg. “We have a lot of staff that’s older. I’m worried about their safety.”
She and her staff are doing everything they can to ensure safety, including keeping everyone outside, mandating masks and designating just one server per group. “It feels like every day I have to reinvent the wine business,” Perry said. Napa and Sonoma counties, which are more rural than many other parts of the Bay Area, have been spared the worst effects of the coronavirus. Together, the counties have recorded a total of eight deaths. On both a per capita basis and an abso
lute basis, Napa and Sonoma have the lowest total case counts among the nine Bay Area counties.
But reopening has been accompanied by worrying statistics. Both counties recently recorded their largest singleday increases — 15 new cases for Napa on June 13, and 30 for Sonoma on the same day. Outbreaks of COVID19 have occurred among workers at two unnamed Sonoma County wineries. One, which Sonoma County Public Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase announced in May, involved 14 employees; the Sonoma County Vintners said that the winery was not open to the public. In June, Mase confirmed that three workers had been diagnosed at a second winery, and said it was likewise not open to the public.
Wine Country is hardly the only place seeing an increase in cases, but it faces a unique set of problems.
The counties are already the goto day trip destinations for many Bay Area residents, and even though the pandemic has decimated international and domestic air travel, visits by people from the surrounding areas on road trips are expected to swell this summer. That makes experts like Michael Visser, an economics professor at Sonoma State University, a little anxious.
While the gradual reopening of businesses is great for the economy, and there are ways people can engage in tourism and travel in a safe way, Visser said he’s worried that visitors will become lax in following social distancing rules, wearing masks (despite state rules) and practicing good hygiene.
“I’m a little worried we’re going to have to pause on certain economic activities. I’m especially conflicted about outoftown visitors,” Visser said.
With their reduced capacities, many wineries are unable to meet the high demand for visits right now. Natalie Owdom estimates that she turned away 100 people last weekend from Muscardini Cellars in Kenwood, where she is general manager. Many people are calling wineries trying to get sameday reservations, she said, and finding there are no openings. It pains her to say no, but “I don’t want the staff or our guests to feel uncomfortable.”
Wine Country’s hotels have also been badly hurt by the shutdown.
“The pandemic has dealt the local lodging industry its worst loss in the region’s history,” Steve Jung, general manager of the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Rohnert Park and chairman of the Sonoma County Tourism board of directors, said in a statement.
That’s saying something, because the earthquakes and wildfires of recent years had already hurt tourism to Wine Country. Tamara Mims, the president and CEO of Four Sisters Inns, which operates eight boutique hotels in Napa and Sonoma counties, said her company had expected 2020 to be its best year yet. Now, it will be lucky to achieve 60% occupancy by the end of the year.
“We’ve taken a big financial hit in the last three months because of the closures. It’s been rough,” Mims said. She was happy that Sonoma County was officially greenlighting leisure travel, “but we really haven’t had that many room reservations,” she said.
Almost all employees at her inns have returned, except for spa workers, but guests should expect a different routine. Breakfast buffets are gone, for example, replaced with breakfasts left outside the room, limiting guests’ interaction with workers. Signs about social distancing methods can be seen all over the inns, and masks are required when guests interact with staff and in communal areas.
One of the biggest challenges is getting customers to follow the new procedures.
“There’s a general fear that we could be exposed,” said Ian Devereux White, cofounder of Smith Devereux Wines in Napa. “You’re seeing tastings all day, people coming from all over the Bay Area, and there’s nervousness.”
White has found it difficult to keep people in line with social distancing while hosting vineyard tours. “When people arrive, I tell them I’ve got two young children, one of whom has asthma, and it’s important for me to keep my distance,” he said.
Inevitably, though, as the guests walk through the Cabernet vines in the Oak Knoll District vineyard, they forget to stay 6 feet apart. White’s solution: He stands behind a patio chair, and rotates it as needed to keep a barrier between himself and his guests. “It sounds silly, but it’s worked out pretty well,” he laughed.
As a safety precaution, St. Helena’s Spottswoode Winery — which has seen only a small number of visitors since reopening — has moved all its tastings to an outdoor area, rather than the usual space indoors. But a forecast of over 90 degrees for the coming days has president Beth Novak Milliken worried about how enjoyable the experience will be.
“We have been relatively safe here in Napa County,” said Milliken. She understands that an increase in the number of cases was inevitable upon reopening the local economy. “But our whole goal, and the goal of the Napa Valley Vintners, is to make Napa Valley the safest place to visit.
“And,” she added, “it’s just gonna take one outbreak at one winery to change that.”