Napa, Sonoma wineries examine safety of barrel rooms after quake

Though 14 years ago, Bob Torres still vividly remembers the day he and other wine industry officials saw a demonstration at UC Berkeley’s earthquake simulator on the effects of a magnitude 7.4 temblor on a rack of wine barrels stacked six high.

In only a few seconds, the rack started swaying vigorously side to side before it toppled over and barrels flew out as 600-pound projectiles.

“It’s just frightening to think that mode of failure and the huge risk it carries during an earthquake,” said Torres, principal and senior vice president of operations at Trinchero Family Estates in St. Helena. “Just seeing it was enough, and that was only one stack of barrels.”

The lessons learned that day stayed with Torres as he worked to help fortify the safety at Trinchero’s five barrel rooms, such as ensuring that wine racks are no closer than 18 inches from walls and that stacks are not more than five barrels high. One of his barrel rooms in Napa has stronger, reinforced barrel racks that cost twice as much as the industry standard.

But fear gripped him after the magnitude 6.0 American Canyon earthquake that struck on Aug. 24, though Trinchero suffered minimal losses in its barrel rooms. What if the next quake is bigger, or strikes during the workday when a cellar crew is in the barrel room?

“We’re really going to go back and take a look at this. The one thing you don’t want to be is complacent,” Torres said.

Vintners across Wine Country are having the same soul-searching thoughts and conversations as Torres in the aftermath of the quake.

An initial survey showed 120 Napa County wine and agriculture businesses sustained damages totaling $48 million dollars, a figure that will rise as more lost inventory is tabulated. The damage was less than originally feared, and industry officials concede they caught a huge break because it occurred during the overnight shift on a Sunday, so no workers were in harm’s way, and many barrels were empty as winemakers prepared for this year’s harvest.

The unofficial mantra for the region’s multibillion-dollar wine industry is “it could have been much worse.” But that is little consolation to those who lost wine or the few businesses that suffered significant damage. The issue is compounded by the fact that the vast majority of wineries do not carry earthquake insurance.

“I’m saying my prayers that maybe I’ll be OK,” said Bill Canihan, owner of Canihan Winery in Sonoma, who had 1,000 cases of his pinot noir and syrah at the nearby Groskopf storage center. Canihan said on Thursday that he did not know the status of his wines 11 days after the quake.

The initial focus has turned to safeguarding barrel rooms as they suffered more serious damage compared to cased goods stored in warehouses, vintners said, a perception aided by graphic photos shared on social media. “The barrels are where you saw the most prolific damage,” said Rob Morris, wine business services director at Frank, Rimerman and Co., a St. Helena accounting firm.

One general observation drawn is that four-barrel racks, which hold a horizontal row of four wine barrels, performed much better than the more popular two-barrel racks given that their weight was more evenly distributed over a greater length to provide more stability. “This (two-barrel) rack has in a number of occasions proven itself vulnerable,” said Joshua Marrow, a principal at Structural Engineering Group, who conducted the UC Berkeley test as a graduate student and whose own research has shown the shortcomings of the two-barrel rack.

While some wineries have made the switch to four-barrel racks, others have not, most likely because of economic factors as the barrel rooms would have to be re-arranged for larger forklifts and new protocols would be implemented for washing the barrels. They also would likely lose precious space in their barrel rooms.

“It’s not like they put their heads in the sand … . The industry as a whole was listening,” Marrow said. “There’s an economic barrier to this.”

While his wineries were not hit hard, Torres said Trinchero’s barrels did suffer some losses at a third-party storage facility, Napa Barrel Care, located in south Napa, which suffered serious damage. Those costs could add up as Trinchero had 5,500 barrels there, all stored on two-barrel racks. They were in the process last week of being retrieved and counted for inventory. A barrel of Napa cabernet could contain as much as $30,000 in retail product, with the barrel costing about an additional $1,000, Torres said.

While some industries, such as construction, have specific overhead storage regulations, the wine industry does not and follows general industry rules for state building codes, said Amy Martin, chief counsel for Cal/OSHA. The agency, she said, has not received any recent complaints on storage violations at wineries, nor has it opened any investigations in the aftermath of the earthquake. A check of some wineries and storage facilities affected by the earthquake in an OSHA database did not turn up any serious violations. Napa Barrel Care had three minor violations in 2009.

Some wineries and vendors have taken a proactive approach to addressing the risk of earthquakes, given it can be a financially prudent decision, especially in the absence of earthquake insurance. “It’s even more expensive not to do this,” said Sam McHenry, owner of Accurate Forklift in Santa Rosa, which helps warehouses navigate the approval process to obtain a seismic rating. “The people I deal with I ask, ‘How valuable is your product? Do you want to risk it?’”

After the earthquake, McHenry said he checked all his jobs and was relieved that they suffered no major damage, as the storage systems had been constructed with items such as seismic footplates that will diffuse the quake’s energy to the floor. While new warehouses in Wine Country typically come with such seismic certification, McHenry said he could not vouch that all facilities have such ratings. “It’s the business’s responsibility to comply with all the requirements,” he said.

McHenry helped design a system for Amedeo Holdings warehouse in Napa, which lost only one loose bottle from the 80,000 cases it stored, said Michael Greenlee, chief executive officer. He was at his facility less than two hours after the quake to check for any damage.

Greenlee added that most wineries would experience some financial difficulties if they lost 20 percent or more of their inventory. “I have some clients who store wine and they are asking to move all in with us,” Greenlee said.

Canihan said he could potentially consider switching facilities, depending on the resolution of his inventory. His bottles retail from $49 to $70. “I just don’t know how much damage I have suffered yet,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 521-5223 or bill.?swindell@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter @BillSwindell.