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Burned to the ground: Inside the Napa wineries gutted by raging wildfires (many photos)
Daily Mail UK ^ | 15 October 2017 | Ruth Styles In Napa

Posted on 10/15/2017 9:57:49 AM PDT by dennisw

Burned to the ground: Inside the Napa wineries gutted by raging wildfires that has devastated the $63billion industry and killed 40 people

The wildfires, the deadliest in California history, have claimed 40 lives so far and have destroyed an estimated 5,700 properties

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Sonoma, Napa, Santa Rosa and Calistoga Entire neighborhoods have been leveled and 214,000 acres of land has been reduced to ash Among the most high-profile victims of the disaster has been the area’s wine-making industry

In Napa County alone, the industry contributes $13bn to the local economy each year and $50bn to the national coffers Nicholson’s Ranch winery in Sonoma and the Paras Vineyard on the flank of Mount Veeder sustained serious damage to properties

While wineries suffered property damage to buildings, the vineyards - the lifeblood of the industry - have largely been spared

Ninety per cent of the grape harvest in Sonoma and Napa Counties had already been picked when the fires ignited so smoke damage to fruit has been minimal 'I’m always trying to find a brighter side to it all – it could have been a lot worse for us,' said Ray Signorello, the owner of the Signorello Estate

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Food; Gardening; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: wildfires
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To: dainbramaged

I don’t answer ?’s from conclusion jumping douchebags like yourself. Piss off..


21 posted on 10/15/2017 10:54:46 AM PDT by Autonomous User (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
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To: silverleaf
Why isnt this disaster getting more news coverage?

Because despite the fact that any natural disaster is devastating for those involved, this one is very, very small compared to any one of the three recent hurricanes: Harvey, Irma or Maria.

Harvey alone caused 20 times more damage (in terms of destroyed homes) in Houston than these fires have.

The number of people trying to put their lives back together in the wake of the triple hurricane disasters makes these fires seem pretty limited in scope and scale.

22 posted on 10/15/2017 10:56:26 AM PDT by Cementjungle
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To: jz638

Now that you mention it, you’re probably correct that even if the rootstock survives, the varietal “upper” grafted to it may very well be dead and whatever resprouts will be the rootstock variety.


23 posted on 10/15/2017 11:01:36 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Autonomous User

All that air pollution being released into the California air from mother nature. How sad. Too bad.

>><<

Brown should pass a law against wild fires.


24 posted on 10/15/2017 11:03:08 AM PDT by Joe Bfstplk (A Texas Deplorable.)
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To: DuncanWaring
Does anyone know, if a vineyard burns, will the grapevine roots resprout, or do they have to be replanted?

I know from experience that grapevines must be trained from the beginning to put out two arms in a T shape. Arms are called cordons from the French. Grapes are hardy so should re sprout. But I do not know if it is better just to buy new grape plants and train them into the T shape. Or weather sprouts will do.

When you look at older grapevines they get thick like a 4" diameter tree trunk

25 posted on 10/15/2017 11:03:21 AM PDT by dennisw (Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it is enemy action.)
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To: DuncanWaring
Apparently the grapevines themselves have largely not burned. It sounds like the damage is more to structures, and the uncultivated areas that had a lot of trees and brush.

“Fire doesn’t kill vines,” said viticulturist Daniel Roberts of Sonoma County’s Integrated Wine Growing. Fire “can burn them back, and they won’t have crop next year. But I’ve brought vineyards back after fire.”

In fact, vineyards served as highly effective fire breaks, guarding nearby buildings from blazes. That’s because “a standing vine will have a moisture content of as much as 50 percent, even in a dry year,” explained Joe Zicherman, a fire safety expert and owner of Zicherman Roemer Vineyard in Anderson Valley. For a vine to reach its fiber saturation point — where it could burn through — requires a prolonged heating period. “And wildfires move fast,” he said.

“Looking at some of the affected areas, you’ll see fire around the vineyards,” Zicherman continued, “but I don’t foresee a lot of damage to the vineyards themselves.”

http://www.sfgate.com/wine/article/Hope-in-Wine-Country-as-vineyards-assess-the-12278600.php

26 posted on 10/15/2017 11:04:00 AM PDT by Wayne07
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To: dennisw

The state of California will take a long time to recover from this tragedy.


27 posted on 10/15/2017 11:05:03 AM PDT by 2001convSVT (Going Galt as fast as I can.)
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To: DuncanWaring

“Does anyone know, if a vineyard burns, will the grapevine roots resprout, or do they have to be replanted?”

My brother has a vineyard in Redwood Valley which we visited yesterday. The sheriff escorted us in and out to look at the property for about 30 minutes, otherwise the burned areas are blocked off to prevent looting and because there is danger from downed power lines, and the state has certain specific concerns as to toxics getting spread around. Don’t forget these are farms and there is diesel and other fuels in various containers of unknown status. The house on the property was 100% destroyed, I am talking the sills on the concrete perimeter foundation walls, even the boards surrounding planter areas. You see white ash and (only) small charcoaled pieces of 2x4 lumber with a small pile of nails lying on the ground. Pile of nested frying pans from the kitchen and coffee cups. Not much else.

But the *vines* in his case and in most of these cases are somewhat amazingly untouched. Including the tiny PVC tubing for irrigation. So, as you’ll discover if you read the article, if there was a fire, the buildings (and, if there is wine processing gear such as tanks and destemmers and bottling equipment) is probably destroyed. The nature of these fires was that the fires were spread by flying embers, then blowtorched via 40+ mph winds. Though they burned super hot, they burned super fast because all the fuel was consumed so quickly. Not like a forest fire where a sweeping curtain of blazing fire marched through and cooked the entire environment including under the ground for an hour or more. A neighbor said his house was fully engulfed in less than 3 minutes from the igniting ember landing on the roof. He said a 300 x 300 field (actually a cemetary) was burned in about 15 seconds. It was bizarre driving through Santa Rosa and seeing in-line (meaning freestanding, one business per building) restaurants built within shopping centers within the last ten years, eg; basically new, burned to the ground.

As to your question, probably 98% of the grapes and vines are perfectly fine. Most of the grapes are in their dormancy period now. Now, whether the fruit itself from the next harvest will produce salable wine is probably unanswerable. I myself am not an expert in this but my main point is that “vineyards” by and large did not burn. At all. In all these pictures of utterly destroyed wineries, meaning buildings, infrastructure, you will see the rows of grapes and the trellises and irrig systems largely untouched.


28 posted on 10/15/2017 11:05:08 AM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (Apoplectic is where we want them!)
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To: vetvetdoug

That’s known as fume’


29 posted on 10/15/2017 11:05:12 AM PDT by Locomotive Breath
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To: DuncanWaring

From the article...

‘But the vines, which take up to eight years to become productive after being planted, remain cause for concern.

‘If [the damage] goes down to the rootstock, it can take about two years for your crop to recover so you’re going to miss about two years of wine,’ Alan told DailyMail.com.

‘If it burns a good portion of the wood but still leaves some intact, you can possibly lose your next vintage.’


30 posted on 10/15/2017 11:05:28 AM PDT by Twotone
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To: Calvin Locke

Most of the French vineyards are Texas rootstock and Kaliforny might be the same. This would be the native/wild Mustang Grape.


31 posted on 10/15/2017 11:05:45 AM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure)
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To: Joe Bfstplk

“Brown should pass a law against wild fires.”

Eggsactly! They regulate everything that contributes to “Global Warming”


32 posted on 10/15/2017 11:13:53 AM PDT by Autonomous User (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
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To: jz638
Just think of the impetus this destructive fire will give to the "flavorings" industry to make cheap wine taste like your "$20 bottle for the price of $50" example.

Buyers beware.

33 posted on 10/15/2017 11:18:55 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: DuncanWaring

Grapevines today are grafted. The genetic material of the rootstock is different than the genetic material that produces the grapes. This is because the quality wine grapes cannot grow on their own roots due to phylloxera. Wine growers will select a particular cultivar of the grape from which they want to make wine and a particular cultivar of the rootstock.

In addition, there is a complex process each year of training and pruning. What you see as “grape vines” may be many years old. Each year the old vines put out new shoots out of the old wood and it’s these new shoots on which the grapes grow each year. Early in the winter, last year’s shoots are pruned back (and burned!), and new shoots grow the following year.

So if this year’s shoots get scorched probably no problem. If the old wood is damaged then it might not be dead but might not produce good grapes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylloxera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4BzrE7hn2U


34 posted on 10/15/2017 11:20:37 AM PDT by Locomotive Breath
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To: dennisw

Why didn’t Gov. Brown do anything to stop this?


35 posted on 10/15/2017 11:20:44 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob
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To: Deaf Smith

Yes, it’s hard to say, since the aphids learned to attack the Kali vines, and a lot of French (new) rootstock was imported into Kali to deal with them.


36 posted on 10/15/2017 11:27:51 AM PDT by Calvin Locke
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To: Autonomous User

Go ahead, double down on childish and stupid. KMA.


37 posted on 10/15/2017 11:34:58 AM PDT by dainbramaged (Get out of my country now)
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Comment #38 Removed by Moderator

To: dainbramaged

Hey DB, AU is a psycho. Don’t waste your time with him/her/it. I seem to attract a lot of them here on FR so I’ve learned to just back off and move on to another thread. These miscreants would love nothing better than to get you to post the wrong word and get yourself banned.


39 posted on 10/15/2017 11:39:00 AM PDT by 4Runner
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To: Cowboy Bob
Why didn’t Gov. Brown do anything to stop this?

I'm interested to know whether anything could have stopped this. This SF Chronicle article says that a very similar fire occurred in 1964, but of course the impact was much less because what is now Wine Country was far less developed 50 years ago.

Knowing that California just went through a very wet winter that provided a heavy fuel load, is there anything that a far-sighted government, industry, and populace could have economically done to prevent this disaster?

Joe Bastardi does a great job of pointing to times in the past that were very similar to the current day, weather-wise. Is there a Joe Bastardi of fire forecasting? Where was the insurance industry while the conditions for this fire were being established? Couldn't they have raised an alarm?

40 posted on 10/15/2017 11:40:26 AM PDT by AZLiberty (The logical endpoint of "zero-tolerance history" is zero history.)
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