Despite fires, wine is doing just fine - for now
HEALDSBURG >> If you’re worried that wildfires might have created shortages of Northern California’s 2019 cabernet sauvignon, or even just imparted it with an undesirable smoky flavor, you can relax. The wine is just fine. For now.
Despite a late October blaze that raged through one of the world’s best-known wine-growing regions. forcing evacuations in two midsized towns, wine production in Sonoma County escaped largely unscathed.
Limerick Lane Wines, for instance, avoided serious damage despite flames that licked at two sides of its property in the Russian River Valley just south of Healdsburg. Limerick’s grapes were already harvested, crushed and stored in tanks and barrels. The winery’s sealed cellar prevented smoke damage to its inventory, said owner Jake Bilbro, although its tasting room now has an acrid smell.
“I have to thank the people who planted our vineyards and built our house
100 years ago,” Bilbro said. “Our buildings are all surrounded by vineyards, and vineyards are excellent fire breaks.”
Overall, vintners estimate that the region lost only about five percent of its harvest to fire and smoke — not a perfect outcome, but better than in 2017, when wildfire struck with only about
90% of the harvest in. The remaining grapes weren’t all lost, but that year’s vintages were rumored to have a “smoky” taste, and winemakers were taking no chances this year.
Many in Sonoma, a sprawling county larger than Rhode Island located about an hour north of San Francisco, say they’re hoping that fires don’t become the new normal. But with the smell of smoke lingers in the air and the charred hills serving as a reminder, they’re also making plans in case they do.
Fire season isn’t over yet, of course, and the now largely contained Kincade fire did incinerate the historic Soda Rock Winery, although most vineyards sustained no damage and lost no production. But the region has suffered a precipitous drop in fall tourism, which could undermine the economic health of its wineries and hospitality industry alike.
Bret Munselle lost about half of the young vines he had planted just two months before when a fire raged through the upper part of his ranch at Munselle Vineyards in Alexander Valley, between Healdsburg and Geyserville. The drainage below the plants was also damaged, and will probably cost $150,000 to repair, he said.
It could have been much worse if mature vineyards were more appealing to fire. Water-rich vines and grapes planted in plowed rows don’t offer them much fuel, he said.
“My family has lived on this property for 130 years,” Munselle said. “We’ve never seen it burn from the tops of mountains to the valley floor.”
Climate change is making summers warmer and drying out more forest brush, creating greater fuel reservoirs for wildfire, said Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of earth system science at Stanford. The late-autumn rains that typically end fire season have started later in recent years, he said, although it’s not yet clear whether that’s also climate-related.
Oddly enough, those same effects can help protect the grape crop by accelerating ripening of the fruit and reducing the chance that unexpectedly early rains might damage it.
Wine researchers have suggested vineyards might need to adjust harvest times, evaluate what they plant, even possibly move to cooler areas over time.