High winds enabled flames to engulf whole neighbourhoods. Credit: George Rose in Sonoma County

Update on the wildfires in California wine country

At a glance:

Death toll reached 40 on Sunday 15 October, LA Times reported. Hundreds more were believed to be still missing.

11,000 firefighters were still fighting fires at the weekend, but significant progress had been made, said the state fire service, Cal Fire.

75,000 people remained evacuated, with an estimated 5,700 properties destroyed and 218,000 acres of land burned, with San Francisco streets covered in soot and ash.

Thousands of firefighters from several US states have joined the battle. Credit: George Rose in Sonoma County.

Wine associations said that their first concern was naturally for the welfare of residents and neighbours. But Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) said that 20 of its members reported damage to property. It earlier reported that five wineries suffered ‘total or very significant losses’.

90% of the 2017 harvest had been picked prior to the fires. Some Cabernet Sauvignon was still on the vines, although there was hope that its thick skin would help to protect from smoke taint.

Signorello Estate saw its winery burned to the ground. Ray Signorello Jr said that all staff were safe, as was the 2017 and 2016 vintage, and has vowed to rebuild. Read a full interview on Decanter.com. Credit: Signorello Estate.

Report from Liza Zimmerman in California:

The real tragedy of the situation is one of human loss and displacement, as firefighters have justifiably focused on saving lives rather than property.

Many wine country workers have lost homes and possessions to the fire and don’t have any insurance as renters and migrant workers.

Prior to when multiple fires broke out about a week ago, there was already a premium on affordable  housing where wine country workers lived and the situation is only likely to get worse.

It has been compared to the 1991 Oakland fires which drastically diminished the amount of affordable housing as residents, and new buyers, choose to build expensive mini-mansions after the devastation.

Mark Vernon, the CEO of Ridge Vineyards, which has wineries in Santa Cruz and the North Bay, said that he woke up to fires burning in Napa County last Sunday. He suspects that they may have been caused by downed power lines.

At Darioush Winery on the Silverado Trail, president Dan de Polo said that the family owners of the property who were on the estate when the fires broke are all safe.

He added that he has since tasted through the wines in tank and determined them to all be stable and added that the real tragedy is about human displacement.

Next door, Signorello Estate saw its winery building burned to rubble, although its 2017 juice and 2016 vintage in barrel survived unscathed, as did all staff.

As many hotels and restaurants were damaged or shuttered this past week, the bulk of visitors headed south to destinations such as the Monterey Peninsula because their visits had been cancelled in Napa and Sonoma.

The air and smoke was so bad in the city of San Francisco on Thursday that my head was covered in ash after mailing a letter.

Public buses in San Francisco were full of ash and nightstand tables, left by open windows, were covered in soot for most of last week. San Francisco is approximately 80 kilometres from Santa Rosa, the one of the epicentres of the fire.

There was a determination to carry on among producers. ‘All we want to do is get back to work,’ said de Polo. In terms of the long-term outlook, ‘it is way too early to determine the economic impact’, said Paul Leary, president of Blackbird Vineyards.

(Read more at http://www.decanter.com/wine-news/update-california-fires-latest-378003/#bx5b8L5AbAv8p75s.99)