Don's Gillette's Weekly Wine Blog
Weekly musings from our store's resident wine guru
Don has over thirty years experience in the wine industry. For the last eighteen years his attention has been focused on the growing local industry. Don has a large following of customers who search out his opinions (never in short supply!) on new releases and on what's currently most distinctive on our shelves. Others seek his insights on wineries and trends that are still under the radar. Check back here each week for Don's latest thoughts on various wine-related topics. Read Don's full bio...
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Luck of the Harvest
Growing up in California you live with earthquakes and brush fires. I have been through several of the former and had some clear views of the later. You can take your choice, but I will stick with earthquakes.
By the evening of October 11th, Napa Valley's Deer Park fire was fully contained. Stopping the fire at only 300 acres required the participation of 1,569 persons, 1,167 of them firemen; 146 engines; 47 crews; 10 water-tenders and 4 helicopters.
This adventure began days earlier, when a pickup truck failed to negotiate a tight switchback turn on Deer Park Road, about a third of the way up Howell Mountain. The truck left the road, traveled down a hillside and crashed into a rock. I have yet to learn the fate of the driver. That collision sent sparks into the underbrush, triggering a the fire. In the chain of events that followed, good judgment, hard work, terror and luck all played a part.
The pickup came to rest near the house of Jerry (82 years old) and Darlene (72) McDannald. Their house was quickly engulfed in flames. Fifteen minutes later, Mr. McDannald, returning from a quick visit to a local market, was stopped by a fire department roadblock. He was unhurt, as was Darlene, who was on an overnight visit to Lodi. She was to see the ashes of her house on the television.
I was home for a few days, painting and plastering my house. I had my radio tuned to baseball when the fire reports were on the news, so it was a few days before I learned about the fire. By then it was being moped-up. It was a day or two more before I brought myself to call my friend Sandi Belcher.
Sandi and her partner John Arns are co-owners of Arns Winery, located at the end of Mund Road, in Deer Park. One night, back in the 1980s, Sandi loaned me her spare room after a late-night wine tasting, so I know the rugged terrain. I wasn't sure if the phone service was functioning, but Sandi answered when I called. She had quite a story.
The fire started closer to the nearby Viader and Burgess properties, but threatened the Arns winery and residence, as well as Forman Winery and some private residences. Were the fire to remain unchecked, its path might then take it straight toward the famous Meadowood Resort. Meadowood was packed to capacity with tourists in town for the harvest.
The firefighters found Arns an appropriate base camp for battling the fire. The vineyard has two large holding ponds for water, a water tank and available wine vats that Sandi quickly filled with water. Sandi and John loaded the car with valuables, to prepare for a hasty exit, and chose to stay and help.
The fire department brought in road graders to cut a twelve-foot wide path between the Arns property and the fire. It ran from behind the winery to the end of Old Howell Mountain Road: a • mile run! That was followed by the arrival of miles of fire hose, food and shelter tents, porta potties, hundreds of firemen; convict fire fighters; and the whir of helicopters.
The electric power lines adjacent to Arns also supply the power for Meadowood, but fire crews successfully guarded them, so Meadowood's subsequent evacuation did not take place in the dark.
I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been, as Sandi and John stood in the face of the fire-generated winds. (I remember a Los Angeles fire in 1970, where such a wind toppled a hook and ladder truck parked on the Simi Valley Freeway) It must have nearly as terrifying for Sandi's daughter, who watched it on TV from Santa Rosa.
Fortunately the humidity had been on the rise and the prevailing winds were modest, so the fire was kept under control. Had it all gone a bit differently, things would have been more than scary. The firefighters knew their job, and just about everyone involved was lucky.
This Sunday the folks on Howell Mountain held a thank-you picnic for the firemen at the local elementary school. All the neighbors turned out. Sandi, who had most of her Cabernet picked when the fire struck, tells me 2008 will be a great vintage for Arns Winery. Seems like it already has been.