Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/696561
July 2016 WINES&VINES 47 OAK BARRELS & ALTERNATIVES southern half of Napa County. One of those hardest hit was Laird Family Estate, where Welch stores many of her barrels. The earth- quake struck at 3:20 a.m., and Welch said that had it come at a different hour, it would have been a much more terrible scene than just toppled barrels. "No one would have made it out of that chai alive," she said. Keeping barrels and people safe during earthquakes Welch said winemakers can stack barrels lower, use the latest seismi- cally secure racks or strap the top barrels to their racks so they don't bounce off and cause other racks to topple. "I don't want any of us to lose sight of the earthquake we had two years ago," she said. "Hopefully the point has been hit home well, but we owe it to our colleagues to do everything we can do to keep ourselves, our product and coworkers safe." Another facility that suffered from the earthquake was Napa Barrel Care, which is owned by Mike Blom, who spoke during a session about how winemakers can best protect their investment in new oak barrels. Dozens of bar- rel stacks at the warehouse lo- cated in south Napa toppled resulting in a huge mess that took months to clean up. Images of the heaps of barrels and racks from Blom's facility spread though so- cial media, and his efforts to get everything back in order was fea- tured in Wines & Vines and na- tional media outlets. Since then, Blom has made sev- eral changes to how he stacks bar- rels. Instead of using the common configuration with barrel heads facing the row ends where forklifts operate, the bilges of the barrels now face the row ends and the heads face the narrow walking aisle between rows. Blom also now se- cures the top three stacks of barrels to each other with heavy-duty straps around the barrel bilges. The straps should help restrain the bar- rels on the uppermost racks from jumping clear of their racks and causing other racks to topple. The barrels are also stacked lower, at only six high, to help them withstand some shaking during an earthquake. Blom said the goal wasn't to make the barrels impreg- nable to an earthquake but to keep them standing as long as possible. "The No. 1 issue and the No. 1 goal is to give my staff, any vendors and any customers the time to get out of the building," he said. Contacts: Martin McCarthy North American Sales Director Cell. (707) 303-0941 Deborah Passin Sonoma, Central Coast Cell. (415) 215-5302 Offce: 1285 S. Foothill Blvd - Cloverdale, CA 95425 Ph: (707) 224-2377 - Fax: (707) 224-2390 100% Integrated fr , Full T 100% PEFC, HAACP, ISO 9001, Veritas Certifcation for Wood Aging and Origin Winemaker Celia Welch shares stories of how barrel use, cleaning and storage have changed since she entered the wine industry in 1982.