Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
A report from Fred Scherrer, whose winery is close:
It's been a rough week with the Walbridge fire raging so close and the threat to the winery and our neighbors hovering over us. The southern most edge of the fire that is threatening Guerneville & Forestville is just 7 miles from the winery. Fortunately, the amazing work by the fire fighters and favorable weather have been able to significantly slow the spread of the fire. Better yet, yesterday afternoon the Evacuation Warning the winery has been under since Friday morning was lifted. Better still, the fog came in last night with cooler temperatures and much welcome humidity.
Some smoke is still in the area which was very high in elevation the first few days. And yes, there are lots of unknowns right now if there will be an impact on the grapes as it will be highly site dependent given the diversity of terrain and direction from the fire. I'm cautiously optimistic, as smoke isn't just smoke, it's complicated. There are volatiles vs. particulates, differences in location, duration of exposure and physiological state of the vine and fruit.
In 2004, as a result of the Geysers Fire which started on September 3 (the day after the Old & Mature Vines Zin was picked), smoke heavy with particulates blanketed Alexander Valley for several days. We picked the Shale Terrace Zin on Sept 9 and the Cabernet Sept 13-15 with no impact at all on the grapes or wine.
Then in the early summer of 2008, the far northern Sonoma coastal vineyards were smothered for weeks with highly volatile smoke that penetrated the vines and the fruit had significant smoke taint from those vineyards (which lead to our Black Lightnin' Pinot Noir).
And we'll know soon enough, that long heat wave moved things along and our first grapes will be coming in on Friday. Let's wait and see what we have before rushing to judge the vintage.
It's been a rough week with the Walbridge fire raging so close and the threat to the winery and our neighbors hovering over us. The southern most edge of the fire that is threatening Guerneville & Forestville is just 7 miles from the winery. Fortunately, the amazing work by the fire fighters and favorable weather have been able to significantly slow the spread of the fire. Better yet, yesterday afternoon the Evacuation Warning the winery has been under since Friday morning was lifted. Better still, the fog came in last night with cooler temperatures and much welcome humidity.
Some smoke is still in the area which was very high in elevation the first few days. And yes, there are lots of unknowns right now if there will be an impact on the grapes as it will be highly site dependent given the diversity of terrain and direction from the fire. I'm cautiously optimistic, as smoke isn't just smoke, it's complicated. There are volatiles vs. particulates, differences in location, duration of exposure and physiological state of the vine and fruit.
In 2004, as a result of the Geysers Fire which started on September 3 (the day after the Old & Mature Vines Zin was picked), smoke heavy with particulates blanketed Alexander Valley for several days. We picked the Shale Terrace Zin on Sept 9 and the Cabernet Sept 13-15 with no impact at all on the grapes or wine.
Then in the early summer of 2008, the far northern Sonoma coastal vineyards were smothered for weeks with highly volatile smoke that penetrated the vines and the fruit had significant smoke taint from those vineyards (which lead to our Black Lightnin' Pinot Noir).
And we'll know soon enough, that long heat wave moved things along and our first grapes will be coming in on Friday. Let's wait and see what we have before rushing to judge the vintage.