Some wineries lose their entire vintage
By Dan & Krista Stockman
Wildfires in California’s wine regions are becoming increasingly common.
In 2017, wildfires burned parts of Napa Valley with six wineries damaged or destroyed.
The 2020 wildfires – known as the Glass Fire – were dramatically worse. The San Francisco Chronicle reports at least 27 wineries were damaged, with many of them destroyed.
And that’s not all – even wineries that were not burned may have lost their entire 2020 vintage because the heavy smoke from the fires ruined the grapes still on the vines, giving them an unpleasant flavor called Smoke Taint. Many wineries in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys will make no wine at all, others will make only a fraction of what they had planned, the Chronicle said. And it’s not just Napa and Sonoma – statewide, the California harvest will be about 15 percent smaller than 2019.
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