Lake County wineries defend vineyards from flames, smoke

Normally, Lake County vintners would spend the first week of August gearing up for the oncoming harvest. Now, they find themselves clearing brush to protect their vineyards from flames and keeping a wary eye on clouds of noxious smoke that could taint the taste of their valuable grapes.

As of Tuesday, Lake County wineries and vineyards had escaped the brunt of the Rocky fire, the largest wildfire in California. There have been no reports of damage to the county’s wine industry, though vintners are on edge from the unpredictable blaze that has spewed massive plumes of smoke and ash over Lake County since it erupted July 29.

Previous fires in Wine Country have left their mark on the annual grape crop, imparting a smoky flavor that can easily derail a vintage in the finicky wine marketplace.

So far, smoke damage to the county’s $60 million grape crop is estimated to be “minimal to none,” said Debra Sommerfield, president of the Lake County Winegrape Commission.

“We are feeling fortunate from a grape perspective,” Sommerfield said. “We are keeping our fingers crossed.”

The only problematic day has been Friday, when winds shifted and caused smoke to linger over much of the county for about a half of the day before clearing out, she said. But thanks to favorable winds, smoke has not been much of an issue, winemakers said. Most of the county’s vineyards are located to the west of the fire - which has consumed 67,000 acres southeast of Clear Lake - and winds have flowed mostly from west to east.

Only two wineries near Clearlake Oaks have been shut down by the fire. Cache Creek Vineyards and Noggle Vineyards and Winery were forced to shut their doors as a result of a road closure along the Highway 20 corridor, where the blaze crossed the road Monday on its northward trajectory.

Cal Fire crews constructed a 70-foot-wide containment line along the west side of Cache Creek Vineyards on Tuesday to provide protection from the blaze. At Shannon Ridge Vineyards, work crews cleared brush and dug containment lines on Monday to protect the 2,000-acre ranch, which contains 700 acres of vineyards.

Owner Clay Shannon said he grew nervous Monday night as he saw the western edge of the fire and a large plume of black smoke over a ridge about a mile from his ranch.

“The last afternoon there was scary ... That’s when it’s the worst,” Shannon said. “It’s every afternoon when that wind comes and the humidity is so low.”

The outlook was better on Tuesday, Shannon said, because the weather improved after a cooler night and a morning fog that blanketed the area. The winery hopes to start harvest on Friday.

Lake County is a small but increasingly important part of the North Coast wine market, where Napa and Sonoma counties receive the lion’s share of the accolades and attention - and command the highest prices for their grapes.

The county, however, has a long tradition in the modern wine industry - it’s where Jess Jackson Jr. turned a pear and walnut orchard into a vineyard that served as a launching pad to create his Jackson Family Wines empire. Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, also owns a small vineyard in the county. Today, Lake County is home to 35 wineries and more than 8,700 acres of vineyards, which represents a large increase in recent years, Sommerfield said.

While the vineyards have been protected from the flames, winemakers are watching for signs of smoke damage to the county’s grapes.

Smoke has large concentrations of phenol compounds, such as guaiacol and eugenol, which accumulate on the skin and pulp of the fruit, according to research at Washington State University. The compounds are released during fermentation and can cause the wine to have an aftertaste that evokes the flavor of an ashtray.

In 2008, wildfires in Sonoma and Mendocino counties caused smoke damage to some vineyards, forcing vintners to deal with bad press indicating that the vintage was less than stellar. Some chose a more open approach: Navarro Vineyards in Mendocino County sold some of its red wines under a special “wildfire offering” on a secondary label.

Peter Molnar, who grows cabernet sauvignon grapes in Lake County, said that smoke from the ongoing Rocky fire has not posed a major problem in his vineyards, located in the Red Hills area about 2 miles from the Sonoma County border.

“We have not had appreciable smoke up on our site. It was a little bit on Friday when the flow was from the east,” Molnar said. He said that “it has been nothing like the smoke we had from 2008 from the Sonoma and Mendocino fires.”

Ryan Zepaltas, a Sonoma County vintner who buys grapes from Lake County, has been monitoring the fire closely and plans to test his fruit for signs of smoke damage.

“We’ll pull cluster samples and send them to the lab to see if we detect smoke taint,” Zepaltas said. “It’s way worse on red wines because they ferment on the skins. It’s like steeping them in the smoke. With white wines we’re pressing juice off the skins right away.”

At risk is 300 cases of wine sold under his namesake label, Zepaltas said. If he chooses not to harvest it or use the fruit, it amounts to a loss in sales.

“If that goes missing, I’ll have to find something to replace it,” he said.

If grapes are damaged by smoke, wineries have two options to try to remove the smoke taint: through a filtration process, like reverse osmosis, or a newer approach done before fermentation called “flash détente.” In the latter process, the skins and juice are briefly boiled at temperatures up to 185 degrees and then put through a vacuum chamber to extract volatile compounds that contribute to smoke taint. Locally, a flash détente machine is available at Carneros Vintners, said its winemaker Dave Dobson, who added that there was another machine operating at the Kunde Family Winery.

“It’s an awesome way to salvage a crop,” Dobson said.

The flash détente process has attracted more attention given that reverse osmosis has a questionable track record, according to some experts. A Washington State University research note from 2012 found reverse osmosis had “limited success; smoke taint will return over time.”

Staff Writer Peg Melnik contributed to this article. You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.