Fire in wine country: Is there anything B.C. can learn from the Northern California wildfires?

Is there anything B.C. can learn from the Northern California wildfires? Fire in wine country

By Tammy Schuster

Fundraising under way in the Napa-Sonoma Counties. The Grateful Table, an event attended by over 500 people in late November, raised close to $250,000 U.S. for wildfire relief. Fundraising under way in the Napa-Sonoma Counties. The Grateful Table, an event attended by over 500 people in late November, raised close to $250,000 U.S. for wildfire relief. Fundraising under way in the Napa-Sonoma Counties. The Grateful Table, an event attended by over 500 people in late November, raised close to $250,000 U.S. for wildfire relief. Fundraising under way in the Napa-Sonoma Counties. The Grateful Table, an event attended by over 500 people in late November, raised close to $250,000 U.S. for wildfire relief.

Flinty, smoky, and heavy. All adjectives a wine connoisseur might use to describe the vintage he or she is sniffing, swirling, and guzzling from a wine glass. They’re also adjectives used to describe Northern California’s air quality in the late fall when wildfires burned its wine region.

While images of the massive fires seen in the media may have caused many to believe that wine country is gone, the Wine Institute in California says the state’s wine region is okay. Of the more than 1,200 wineries located in the affected areas — Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma counties — it is reported that only 11 were destroyed or heavily damaged. A number of other wineries sustained damage to property and buildings, but most are — and have been for a while — ready to accept visitors, host tastings, and produce wine.

According to the Wine Institute, California accounts for 85 per cent of U.S. wine production, and Mendocino, Napa, and Sonoma counties represent only about 12 per cent of overall California wine grape production combined. By the time the wildfires started, 90 per cent of the grapes had already been harvested. “Without downplaying the individual losses suffered, most of the damage was done to residential housing,” says Gladys Horiuchi, director of media relations at the Wine Institute. “The biggest impact wasn’t to wineries and vineyards, but to the displacement of people.”

With record-breaking temperatures in B.C. this summer, the province had their own fires, evacuations, and losses to contend with, but the dangers are the same for both regions. Bob Gray, a B.C. fire ecologist from R.W. Gray Consulting Ltd., says those dangers rely on three main factors: weather, landscape, and fuel — the

fuel being dried out grasses, trees, brush — and fuel is the only factor that can be controlled.

Gray, who consults with local municipalities to help fire-proof communities, says preemptive and prescribed burnings that burn off dry underbrush and other risky growth is necessary. Wine country is typically considered to be fire-resistant because of the constant watering, but it’s the outlying overgrown and driedout greenery that becomes tinder ripe for fire.

While the causes of the fires in California are still under investigation, some say that power lines blown over due the high winds are to blame. The combination of one spark to a dry landscape and high winds can cause a fire to spread rapidly. Wind and weather are out of our control, but Gray says keeping lawns and grassy areas short and green are key to fire prevention. Acknowledging this is difficult in summertime due to water restrictions, he suggests that keeping continuously-grazing sheep, goats, or cattle will significantly cut down on the need to water or mow lawns and landscape. This serving double-duty as both charming and preventative.

Currently, relief and rebuilding efforts are in full-swing to both the damaged areas of California and the damaged reputation. The Wine Institute, along with Visit California, have devoted time and funds to spread the word that California wine country is open for business and pouring generously.

“Across the country, people have assumed that wine country has burned down and we have been trying to correct those misconceptions,” says Horiuchi. “We are trying to get beyond the fires and let people know that things are getting back to normal as far as tasting rooms and visiting wine country go.” o