“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
Which destroys their current meme that the increased rains this year caused more vegetation to grow which in turn caused worse fires. No. Healthy green vegetation with clear from debris rows between the vines helped prevent fires. It's all that dead underbrush they didn't clear out that caused the problem.
I've heard the winery buildings didn't have fire sprinklers. The owners should have been watering down the buildings long before the fire came anywhere close. Who knew alcohol burned!