This thread has me thinking of going up to Napa or Sonoma (I live in San Francisco), going on a nice hike, and enjoying one of the excellent restaurants. No wine tasting, no massage. But with air travel basically cut off I’ve been thinking about lots of driving trips in my free time.
I’m still planning on going to Ridge on the 29th, just with my wife and the friend who I got a MB Component ticket for. Low-key, bring a picnic and an older bottle of Ridge, taste at the bar.
Just as a point of reference, we closed our Tap Room until April (at least). As far as we know, no one at the Brewery has COVID-19 (there’s only six of us), and we’d like to keep it that way.
These estimates are from the CDC. Admittedly it is a worst case but these people have spent their lives studying epidemiology. If that isn’t at least a little scary, I don’t know what is. If strong measures aren’t taken our hospitals and ICU’s will be quickly overwhelmed. The ID Doctors at our big city hospital are very concerned.
“Between 160 million and 214 million people in the U.S. could be infected over the course of the epidemic, according to one projection. That could last months or even over a year, with infections concentrated in shorter periods, staggered across time in different communities, experts said. As many as 200,000 to 1.7 million people could die.”
Really? There’s a reason medical personnel wear them. I’m not comparing people conducting tastings to them but if you can’t see the viable reason for using easy on and off gloves for quick transportation of dirty glassware I guess we have different viewpoints. There’s a reason they tell you not to shake hands. Just because someone is in your presence doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve contracted C-19. The more intimate the contact becomes the more likely the possibility of transmission. It’s pretty simple. This isn’t like keeping them on at all times. It’s in handling stuff people have just touched and had their mouths on and then disposing of them.
As I understand it, there are two main ways it’s transmitted:
!. By an infected person sneezing or coughing (or maybe even heavy breathing, I’m not sure about that) and you breathing in some of it. It’s recommended to stay 6 ft. away from anyone with the virus to prevent this. Of course, people are most infections right after they get the disease, at which point they don’t necessarily have any symptoms.
2. By the microbes getting in through your mouth, eyes, or nose. If you have some on your hands (which can happen by your shaking an infected person’s hand, touching an infected doorknob, or surface) and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, you can get it.
Exactly. Using gloves for short term transportation may seem over the top but I would rather have a protocol of minimal interference that can be impactful. Take the glasses from the table to the dishwasher, place them accordingly, take your gloves off and toss them.
Not good mood. Went to barrel tasting weekend in Sonoma last weekend. Very quiet except at Passalaqua because they were serving paella. Some places were dead empty.
gov projections are usually accurate. with that being said, one of us will be right 
According to a recent study, linked above, breathing normally spreads the virus. Sneezing and coughing spreads more in that moment, but breathing apparently spreads plenty.
-Al
Chiming in… most of the Di Costanzo March and some April tasting appointments have decided to cancel because people won’t be coming to the valley. For us, it is a big impact. Saint Helena feels quiet. I stocked up on cheery white wines over at Gary’s (formerly Dean & Deluca) and it was a ghost town. I bet all of the wineries probably want to reach out to their customers to see if they’d like wines shipped to their homes, but are working out the way to send that email without sounding opportunistic. We might do some messaging next week. Strange days indeed.
Nickel & Nickel just cancelled their Cabernet futures event where they line up their 20+ single vineyard cab for tasting and buying futures. That is normally a very popular event.
From Turley:
“ In the Tasting Rooms:
We are shifting all tastings at both the Amador and Paso Robles locations to appointment-only effective immediately. This change allows us to most safely utilize our properties while abiding by California’s new 6’ social distancing requirements and allowing for thorough cleaning procedures between each tasting.
Each tasting room will have a Turley employee at the entrance managing all appointment arrivals, check-ins, and general inquiries. We are no longer accommodating group tastings of more than 6 people and will be adjusting tasting spaces to include more outdoor locations as our staff and properties can best facilitate.”
Does anyone know for sure if the 6’ social distancing ‘requirement’ actually a requirement or just a guideline? Local health authorities haven’t followed through or every restaurant and bar here in OC would probably have had to close.
My wife is in wine and spirits distribution, in the on-premise division. So: hotels, venues, restaurants, clubs, bars, catering. Sale this week got hammered.
I’ve had a Walla Walla trip planned (from BC, Canada) for over a year. Second week of April.
I just hope sanity and calm prevails, and they don’t close the borders.
Emailed some wineries and they have all responded that they are cautiously going to stay open for now. But we’ll see what Cayuse weekend brings (Cayuse has already cancelled but the other event seem to be continuing).
There are many locals trying to help promote businesses. Hopefully everyone that is suffering from lack of biz can survive. I’m sad to hear about the amount of businesses that have cancellations and have had to lay off employees.
Just heard on national news that California is closing down “wineries”. I assume this means the tasting rooms. Too bad. Anyone have details?
The governor wants bars, brewpubs, tasting rooms, and night clubs closed. It was communicated as a request rather than a state government order. Also wants seniors to stay home, hospitals to stop allowing visitors unless end of life case, probably some other requested actions.
-Al
This sounds pretty mandatory:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced all “bars, nightclubs, wineries, brewpubs and the like” must close temporarily due to the threat of coronavirus.