Between the CZU and SCU fire complexes, Santa Cruz Mountain vineyards have been exposed to smoke and ash, and there is grave concern about taint. Some winemakers have already begun testing their grapes, while others are waiting until the fruit is closer to maturity.
Greg Perrucci of Perrucci Cellars in Los Gatos was scrambling to reopen his tasting room on Kennedy Road again. He’s also busy lining up pickers to harvest syrah.
“It is more than two weeks early, but some of our syrah is getting cooked,” he said.
Perrucci was also keeping a close eye on the estate sangiovese.
“Sangiovese is highly variable, as is the syrah,” he said. “We are still evaluating the harvest timing right now. I’d love two more weeks of hangtime!”
Among those suffering major impact from the CZU fire was Bradley Brown of Saratoga’s Big Basin Vineyards, who lost his home in Boulder Creek. His hillside vineyards created a natural fire break that saved his winery, where he had fortunately just finished bottling a previous vintage. He believes his 2020 crop to be a total loss.
Bill Cooper of Cooper-Garrod in Saratoga sounded a more optimistic note, saying, “When air quality allows, we are open for weekend tastings. We ask that tasters please check our website for updates.”
Cooper-Garrod picked its first grapes Aug. 11, and Cooper said, “At this point, we expect no smoke impact on the fruit.”
Marty Mathis, winemaker for Kathryn Kennedy Winery in Saratoga, seemed similarly upbeat, although he admitted things for harvest this year were markedly different.
“I’m going forward with a much-reduced vintage 2020 due to COVID-19 business concerns, but winemakers feel most comfortable on the crush pad,” said Mathis. “We have no fires in our area, and the smoke is not nearly thick enough to damage our vineyards. That said, of course we know how that could change in a moment and how truly fortunate we are.”
Mathis said they had begun harvesting white grapes, including the first ever crop of Santa Cruz Mountains-grown godello for his new M. Mathis, Winegrower brand. He’s got all of one barrel. He also picked albarino for this label from vines around his Saratoga winery.
Eric Baugher of Ridge Vineyards in Cupertino expressed concern about the unprecedented situation.
“If COVID-19 wasn’t enough to make for a challenging harvest, having a large fire start has really taken it up a notch on making it all that more difficult,” Baugher said.
He said they closed the tasting room after a heavy smoke cloud moved in, and he was doubtful about reopening until fires abated.
“We did begin harvest a few weeks ago, from an old vineyard on the delta in Antioch,” Baugher said. “I also brought in an old mixed zin/carignan vineyard from northern Sonoma. It’s all looking great.
“We have never had major fires and smoke to deal with at this early stage of harvest,” he added. “The Monte Bello bordeaux grapes are still undergoing veraison and are apparently less susceptible to smoke taint. Chardonnay, being further along in development, might be problematic. We will be conducting a lot of tests to assess the situation. If it’s a total loss, we have crop insurance to cover the farming losses. It won’t help us recover the main financial loss of not having the production to bottle and sell.”
Jim Cargill of House Family Vineyards in Saratoga said he picked estate sauvignon blanc on Aug. 24, and that the chardonnay and pinot noir were about two weeks ahead of last year. The winery is four miles from the evacuation lines and has been on fire watch day and night.
“While we have had pockets of smoke, heavy at times, we have not had the long, intense duration that can ruin a harvest,” Cargill said. “The winds change periodically and move the smoke out. We will do some micro picks and send the juice in for testing to gauge the levels of potential damage. This will help us manage the vineyards and fermentations moving forward.”
Testarossa’s Rob Jensen expressed concern about smoke damage from the River fire burning in the Santa Lucia Highlands, where the Los Gatos winery gets much of its fruit.
“There is a lot of testing going on by the growers, and all of us are anxiously waiting for results,” he said. “The vineyard manager at Hahn, from whom we buy our Doctor’s Vineyard pinot noir grapes, said the first test results that came back were much better than expected. We all have our fingers crossed.
“The Santa Lucia Highlands whites we are far less concerned about in that the smoke taint-causing molecule does not penetrate the grape skins, leaving the juice inside greatly unaffected,” Jensen added. “Since our chardonnays are pressed off the skins immediately before fermentation, we expect them to have levels that are below human perception levels.”
Testarossa’s winemaker Bill Brosseau of brought in the first grapes of the 2020 harvest on Aug. 18 from his parents’ certified organic vineyard in Chalone.
Jensen also expressed optimism about fruit from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
Tommy Fogarty of Fogarty Winery said the fires came close to their Skyline Boulevard location in Woodside.
“While the CZU lightning complex fire still burns in the south end of the Santa Cruz Mountains, here in the north things are slowly returning to normal,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “Remnants of the fire hang in the air as smoke. For us we can count this as another near miss. Our thoughts are with our friends and neighbors who lost so much.”
