One Saving Grace for Napa Valley in the Midst of the Wildfires

As the unprecedented wildfire roared through Napa Valley destroying many wineries and generations of history, there is some good news. Roughly 90% of this season’s grapes had been harvested at the time of the fire. While this glimpse of hope must be taken into context with the horrible loss of life and carnage, still it’s something to be thankful for.

While some wines from the 2017 vintage may suffer some smoke taint (an unmistakable and unfortunate byproduct of exposure to smoke) the rest should be OK. But can you imagine the unmitigated disaster that would have occurred had the fires struck a month earlier?

Our hearts go out to wineries that were completely destroyed and to all the area families who lost loved ones and priceless treasures. An uncontrollable wild fire can move at speeds of 14mph leaving some families with virtually seconds to evacuate. I have never witnessed such devastation as we’ve seen from Puerto Rico to Napa with horrible natural and man made disasters in between.

Click here to see photos of some of the wineries that have been devastated by the fires in Northern California.