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16 W i n e s & V i n e s D e C e M B e R 2 0 1 4 N O V E M B E R N E W S D E C E M B E R N E W S N apa, Calif.—The team at Trefethen Family Vineyards gathered Nov. 5 to celebrate pressing off the last tank of 2014 vintage wine as well as successfully com- pleting what everyone agreed was the most challenging harvest ever. One of Napa Valley's iconic estates, Tre- fethen also became emblematic of the chal- lenges faced by the entire valley after it sustained damage during a magnitude-6.0 earthquake Aug. 24. "We were really right at the beginning of harvest," said winery presi- dent Jon Ruel. "We had all those grapes look- ing at us from the vineyard, ready to come in block by block, when Mother Nature shook the table for us." The earthquake caused a historic building on the estate to buckle, halting any harvest work until the structure could be safely stabi- lized. Built in 1886, the building originally housed the Eschol winery. When the Trefethen family purchased the property in 1968, they committed to restoring the structure, which had fallen into disrepair, and today they need to make that decision once more. With grapes scheduled to arrive at the winery the week after the quake, Ruel said the first priorities were ensuring the building was stable and making sure they could process fruit. "The timing was pretty outrageous for us," he said. Thankfully the modern crush pad and fermen- tation area were spared significant damage. The building is currently supported by sev- eral large iron beams that are connected to iron posts set in concrete buried 12 feet un- derground. Inside the building, several large building jacks and columns of railroad ties provide structural support. While it may not be at risk of collapsing, it's still uncertain how much it will cost to rehabilitate the structure, and if that can be accomplished without com- promising its historical appearance. Ruel said the winery has been visited by three separate teams of engineers who are preparing reports about how the building can be salvaged and repaired. The two major questions left unanswered are how much it will cost and what a restored building would look like. "What we really appreciated about the building and enjoyed up until Aug. 24 was that it was virtually as it was when it was built," he said. Ruel said any possible restoration effort wouldn't be complete until 2016 at the earli- est. In the meantime, the company has set up a temporary tasting room. Ruel said he'd gladly take the challenges of a regular year—be it rain, delayed ripening or almost any circumstance—over a natural disas- ter. "We didn't know we could do this, and let's hope we never have to do this again," he said. Ruel concedes that harvest made the quake aftermath slightly easier to endure. The rush and routine of another harvest gave everyone something to do and created a sense or nor- malcy during a period of upheaval. He added that he's never been happier to taste and smell a normal fermentation. "Emotionally, harvest was really good," he said. "We have work to do here, we have wine to make." In September, the city of Napa reported the initial gross estimate on the total damages from the earthquake to private properties at around $300 million, with the cost to public infrastructure at $57.9 million. A voluntary survey of Napa County wineries pegged the cost to the wine industry at $80 million. To help with the economic costs of the earthquake, Napa Valley Vintners pledged $10 million toward community assistance. Communications manager Cate Conniff said the group has disbursed $1.145 million of those funds directly to individuals and fami- lies needing emergency financial aid through the Napa Valley Community Foundation and $815,000 to support services provided by nonprofit groups. The second phase of the Vintners' support will involve giving away the remaining $8 mil- lion to homeowners and small business own- ers starting this month to help pay for physical damage caused by the quake. The federal government announced in No- vember that it has provided $2.4 million in as- sistance funds, and the U.S. Small Business Administration is offering low-interest loans to help defray the costs of earthquake damage. Such a loan is something that Mike Blom, owner of Napa Barrel Care in the southern section of the city of Napa, said he might seek to pay for some of the damage his company suffered from the earthquake. Blom estimates that the cleanup cost his company $250,000, but he's not sure how much total wine his clients may have lost. He said the warehouse is back to normal, but he's currently changing the orientation of the bar- rel rows so the bilge (or fat part of the barrel) now faces the forklift aisles. Because barrels tend to "walk" off racks in the direction of the barrelhead, he switched the rows to pre- vent a barrel from being flung into the aisle and onto a worker or forklift driver during the next big quake. He added that searching inventory will also be easier. He said he's also going to strap down the top three barrel racks (top six barrels) on the ends of rows. Some of his customers are look- ing into four-barrel racks, which reportedly fared better during the quake. The most important goal for Blom is ensur- ing the safety of his staff. "By strapping down the barrels facing the aisle, we reduce the risk—or in my mind, more importantly, increase the time—a barrel will eject from a rack," he said. "I want to give my staff time to move in case things start shaking." —Andrew Adams Quake Could Claim Historic Winery Building Large iron beams support the exterior walls of Trefethen Family Vineyards' 1886 building, which was damaged during the Aug. 24 earthquake.