By: Vince Kleindienst

The 2020 fire season in California threatened a valuable export for the state: wine. Each year wildfires scorch the state of California, but this year’s fire season is something unlike we have seen in the past. [i] The fires this year are even bigger and the temperatures are even hotter, and fire season has only just begun.[ii] This year’s fire season has already “shattered the all-time record with 3.2 million acres burned so far.”[iii] In fact, on September 9th, the “August Complex” fire reached a point in which it has now been deemed the largest fire in California’s history.[iv] Further, there are currently five fires burning that are included in the top ten biggest wildfires in California from 2011 through 2020.[v]

Recently, these wildfires have reached wine country in California. In previous years, the wildfires have created some issues in Sonoma and Napa counties as well as other winemaking areas, but this year is different.[vi] While these recent blazes in the past years started “no earlier than October, toward the end of the harvest season, the 2020 fires are arriving just as grape picking is getting started.” [vii] Due to the fact that the grapes have yet to be picked for this year’s vintage, winemakers have been dealt extremely difficult consequences with regard to wildfire smoke affecting the grapes. [viii]

On top of this, wineries are facing difficulties with COVID-19 related issues such as the safety of their picking crews as well as their staff.[ix] Battling the pandemic and wildfires put wine country’s tourist-dependent economy at risk.[x] On average, wine country visitors spend an average of $2.23 billion each year.[xi] Further, many wineries face risks of their crop fields as well as winery structures being destroyed by the blazes.[xii] Those winemakers that plan to harvest “are now faced with tough questions: is it safe to proceed, and, if so, when? If the grapes still aren’t perfectly ripe, a vineyard may have to weigh the options of picking slightly earlier than they would like or risk the fruity being damaged entirely.”[xiii] Unfortunately, the consequences can’t entirely be known just yet, “but the timing of these fires definitely raises the specter of pervasive smoke affecting grapes that are still on the vines.” [xiv]

Currently, the California Wine Institute has acknowledged that this situation is variable, but to-date, the impact on the state’s wineries and vineyards has been relatively minimal: “just two out of 4,200 wineries in California…have been extensively damaged by the fire.”[xv] Fortunately, “vineyard and winery crews have been able to safely move forward with harvesting white wine and early ripening reds. Napa Valley’s winemakers are optimistic about the vintage.”[xvi]That being said, the region is still in crisis, although it is a bit too early to see what type of damage there is to the winery and wine businesses.[xvii]

If these wildfires continue to persist, the wine industry and those who operate within the sector will suffer “huge, irrecoverable loss.”[xviii] The smoke from these fires may inevitably cause what is known as “smoke taint,” which results in wines that “taste and smell like a damp ashtray, making badly affected grapes unusable.”[xix] Notably, it is estimated as much as 80% of Napa Valley’s Cabernet Sauvignon grapes could be damaged as a result.[xx] Ultimately, with the persistence of these wildfires, the likelihood of “smoke taint” and destruction of vineyards is inevitable. What follows from this is the reduction in supply in the wine industry which will ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers and a reduction in revenue realized by the manufacturers. Although not much more can be done with regard to quelling the wildfires, the fires ultimately prove to be a significant factor affecting wine country and those who conduct business within this industry.

[i]Priya Krishnakumar, The Worst Fire Season Ever. Again. Los Angeles Times (Sept. 15, 2020), https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-fires-damage-climate-change-analysis/.

[ii] Id.

[iii] Id.

[iv]Mike Pomranz, California Wineries Face New Threats with This Summer’s Wildfires, Food & Wine (Aug. 24, 2020) https://www.foodandwine.com/news/california-wildfires-wine-country-2020.

[v] Id.

[vi] Id.

[vii] Id.

[viii] Id.

[ix] Mike Pomranz, California Wineries Face New Threats with This Summer’s Wildfires, Food & Wine (Aug. 24, 2020) https://www.foodandwine.com/news/california-wildfires-wine-country-2020.

[x]Esther Mobley, Wildfires have ravaged Napa Valley. Will California’s wine industry survive?, Nat’l Geographic, (Oct. 9, 2020) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/wildfires-ravage-napa-valley-will-the-wine-region-survive.

[xi] Id.

[xii] Mike Pomranz, California Wineries Face New Threats with This Summer’s Wildfires, Food & Wine (Aug. 24, 2020) https://www.foodandwine.com/news/california-wildfires-wine-country-2020.

[xiii] Id.

[xiv] Id.

[xv] Phoebe French, Fires in California Wine Country: What We Know So Far, The Drinks Bus. (Aug. 27, 2020) https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2020/08/fires-in-california-wine-country-what-we-know-so-far/.

[xvi] Id.

[xvii] Id.

[xviii] Elin McCoy, California’s Wildfires Came at the Worst Time for Wine Industry, Bloomberg (Aug. 27, 2020)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-27/california-s-wildfires-came-at-the-worst-time-for-wine-industry

[xix] Id. (Aug. 27, 2020)

[xx] Esther Mobley, Wildfires have ravaged Napa Valley. Will California’s wine industry survive?, Nat’l Geographic, (Oct. 9, 2020) https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/wildfires-ravage-napa-valley-will-the-wine-region-survive.