Fire North of Santa Maria

Picture from ABC/Qupe facility yesterday. Fire has grown to 6000 acres. Nearing Colson Canyon area . . .
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And here is a picture from Cambria Vineyard . . .
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That doesn’t look good. Yikes!

And now there is a growing one near Cachuma Lake on both sides of the 154 - they are trying to evacuate a camp but resources are limited due to the other fire . . .

Alamo Fire now at 18k acres. I’m out of town but had to call in to Zaca Mesa today- lots of smoke 15 miles south.

From my view in Solvang here’s the Santa Ynez valley fire early on, definitely got bigger and produced some massive thunder clouds by dusk but not headed this way.
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That’s terrible! Obviously protecting people, animals and property is the #1 concern here.

How does the fire impact wineries? It could burn the actual barrel rooms, but can’t the smoke also get into the grapes on the vines?

I can’t believe how quickly it grew…weather is not helping.
My wife showed me those pics Larry and it broke my heart. Let’s hope it gets under control with some cooler weather ahead.

Getting close to Bien Nacido.
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I am not in the business but if I recall correctly some 2008 West Coast wines had smoke taint and some wines were never released .

Marcassin did not release at least one of their 2008 wines due to smoke taint.

I remember trying a 2008 Anderson Valley pinot. The smoke taint was noticeable, but it wasn’t undrinkable. Not sure what measures can be taken to save the wine.

Not sure we need to worry about smoke taint as of yet - but we will have to wait and see how long the fire goes for and where the wind takes the smoke.

Many wineries chose not to release some or most of their 08 Anderson Valley wines. Some did - Navarro released one at a very discounted price, noting that smoke taint was present. Anthill Farms released at least one that was notably tainted but they did not discount the wine.

Some wineries tried in vain to ‘correct’ the problem, only to have it reappear at a later time.

Cheers.

Well, hoping they begin to contain these fires soon. Just did some googling and sounds like the Santa Maria one is around 15% contained and the Whittier one is 5% contained. Forecast shows not a drop of rain in sight so let’s hope that changes.

Praying for some rain, and no wind.

Not a good time for this to happen, I’m hearing there is some degree of ash/residue collecting on clusters in the area and a lot are between lag and veraison. Too early to tell if there is any damage but I imagine there will be samples headed to ETS from a number of vineyards after this settles out.

Larry, Burt Williams did realise his 08 Morning Dew Ranch Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, the first of 2 vintages before he totally retired. The smoke taint was dominating and as of a few weeks ago, just now starting to dissipate, but still quite evident. Its great with grilled food.

BTW, I just talked to Burt. The fires in 08` happened on June 21 and lasted for 3-4 weeks. The local vineyards were hit hard and as Larry states, some did not relase their wines. He believes this fire will also have an effect on the grapes.

How Bien Nacido survived the fire:

Chris Hammell is a rock star. Kudos to him on a job well done.