NorCal Fire and impact on wine

[Mod note: split from the Northern California/Napa/Santa Rosa Fires discussion]

My guess is the whole vintage will be “fumé” this year.

I remember the Duckhorn Pinot from about 2008 that had a distinct smoke taint - I think from the Anderson Valley fires that year. Strongly enough I quite enjoyed it.

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Can you get fire insurance for grapes?

12 posts were split to a new topic: Timing on wine quality discussion after a disaster

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Timing on wine quality discussion after a disaster

Here is an article from today’s USA Today on this very topic:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/story/752195001/

Here is a interesting article from 2009.

Apparently you can now insure not just this year’s grapes, but also the old vines themselves.

11 posts were merged into an existing topic: Timing on wine quality discussion after a disaster

A post was merged into an existing topic: Timing on wine quality discussion after a disaster

About 4 years ago. I purchase some wine from Navarro That was supposed to smoke damaged. I couldn’t tell. I did like it a lot though.

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This must happen to Navarro a lot. That’s where I bought mine, though amor just 4 years ago.

Was that the Duckhorn…?

If so I also bought some and really liked it - it had a subtle but interesting background smokey note. When I visited the winery (south of SF ??? - I know the grapes come from vineyards north of Sonoma) I think I bought their last bottles.

FWIW, from what I’ve seen posted by ITB folks elsewhere, something in the neighborhood oF 85-90% of this years grapes had already been picked before the fires started. The last thing the wineries need now is media suggestion that this entire vintage will be negatively affected. It’s simply not the case.

Besides, about 10 years ago I bought a half case of Anderson Valley Pinot Noir that had been exposed to smoke and ash from a nearby fire. The winery sold it under a secondary label so as not to confuse their regular Pinot customers. It had a nice smoky aspect to it but was still really good. So even the last 10-15% this year may be quite saleable. JMHO.

It was Navarro.

I got some of that Navarro, too. One bottle smelled like an ashtray, the rest were fine.

It will be off for years to come