Wine lovers were watching anxiously Monday as firefighters engaged with a stubborn early-season blaze threatening some of Sonoma’s most famed vineyards.
The Point Fire, which had razed some 1,190 acres and was 20 percent contained as of 4 p.m. Monday, was burning close to the Dry Creek Valley AVA, a 16-mile swath that’s home to about 60 wineries and 9,000 acres of vineyards. The blaze broke out around 12:30 p.m. Sunday about 12 miles northwest of Healdsburg.
As of midafternoon Monday, some of the vines at Healdsburg’s Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves likely had been burned or singed — the fire’s full impact was not yet clear — but overall, the wildfire damage should be minimal, according to Lauren Fremont, executive director of Winegrowers of Dry Creek Valley. And because it’s so early in the wine-growing season and the grapes are still so small, she said that they might be unaffected by smoke taint, which doomed vintages for some wineries during the 2020 Glass Fire.
“It was a mix of a lot of work and a lot of luck with the wind shifting,” Fremont said. “We got very lucky this time.”
That wind and luck may have also helped the greater Bay Area escape a third consecutive Spare the Air alert for Tuesday. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District signaled Monday afternoon that air-quality levels were expected to be good or moderate across the region.
But nerves were still on edge. Evacuation orders issued for the area southwest of Lake Sonoma and Dry Creek included nearly a dozen wineries in the Dry Creek Valley and Healdsburg areas, with evacuation warnings for the area south to Mill Creek Road.
Cal Fire wrote in a social media post Sunday that “we do have confirmed reports of structures destroyed and are working through damage inspections on the structure type and number.” A Cal Fire update Monday morning also indicated that one firefighter had been injured, although no more information was immediately available.
The list of evacuation areas included Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery, Dutcher Crossing Winery, Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves, Capo Creek Winery, Raymond Burr Vineyards, Zichichi Family Vineyard, Hawley Winery, Michel-Schlumberger Wine Estate, Rafanelli Winery and Mounts Family Winery
Healdsburg’s Chateau Diana sits just east of the evacuation zone, but on Monday staff members had their walkie-talkies prepared and were going about their day with a sense of readiness, said Jeff Pitrman, the winery’s business development director. The tasting room is normally closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, making it easier to evacuate if needed.
“You don’t have that additional overhead of making sure customers get out first,” he said.
Beyond the personal safety threat, there’s the question of legacy. Many people in the industry work tirelessly year-round to produce their wines, he said, and if those vineyards, the grapes and wine are lost to wildfire, “it’s like losing a piece of history. An entire vintage of wine is just gone.”
At Healdsburg’s Capo Creek Winery, owner, chef and winemaker Mary Roy said her winery had been evacuated but, so far at least, remained untouched by flames, although a “nice big plume of smoke” on the horizon was a reminder of what could be.
“We have to leave it to the good lord to help us out here — and, of course, the firefighters,” she said.
Meanwhile, she was grappling with the power shut-offs that accompany an evacuation. Capo Creek doesn’t have a generator, so the refrigerated and frozen items Roy planned to serve at the restaurant this week will go bad.
Like many wineries, Dutcher Crossing Winery has made fire safety a year-round mission. Staff at the Geyserville winery, which is in the evacuation zone, remain especially vigilant during fire season, said general manager Becky Rosales, by clearing defensible space, keeping fire pumps on hand and reviewing emergency plans with staff.
Vineyards act as natural fire breaks, according to experts at UC Davis’ viticulture and enology program. But after several ferocious, wind-fueled wildfires, including the 2017 Atlas Peak and 2020 Glass fires, devastated Sonoma and Napa’s wine country, winery owners and vintners began taking major steps to amp up their fire readiness, from fire hazard abatement to firefighting training and equipment purchases.
Winery owner Jim Regusci, for example, added 210,000 gallons of water storage to his Regusci Winery property in Napa and purchased two fire department-style bulldozers and two fire trucks after those fires. Other wineries, including Napa’s Viader Vineyards, installed massive water tanks that could hold hundreds of thousands of gallons to assist fire fighters.
Virtually every winery is prepared for what could be, but what’s particularly concerning about the Point Fire is how early in the season it is. The Point Fire didn’t break out during a particularly hot period, Pitrman said.
“The new climate reality is that this is going to keep happening,” he said. “I think all of us here feel very concerned for the other wineries in this area.”
Bay Area News Group staff writer Robert Salonga contributed to this report.