38 WINES&VINES December 2016
THE BEST OF 2O16
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EDITORIAL
Best-Read News of 2016
"VINEYARD DESTROYED BY FIRE,
OTHERS THREATENED BY SMOKE"
by Kate Lavin
Thanks to winter rains that saturated vineyards and other areas during the dormant sea-
son of 2015-16, California saw fewer wildfires in summer 2016 than during the hot, dry
2015 season. An extremely large exception, the 132,127-acre Soberanes Fire that
started July 22 in Monterey County, Calif., was the subject of the year's most-read news
story, which detailed the destruction of a small vineyard owned by Big Sur Vineyards
proprietor Lenora Carey, who also lost her home. The fire also worried grapegrowers
removed from the blaze's path, as the possibility of smoke taint increased with each day
the fire burned out of control.
For farmers in the Carmel Valley of Monterey County, the fire recalled the 2008 Basin
Complex Fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike and eventually burned 162,818
acres over five weeks. "Pretty much all the vineyards in the (Carmel Valley) AVA had
smoke taint that year," Bernardus Vineyards & Winery vineyard manager Matt Shea told
Wines & Vines. Luckily, Bernardus's estate vineyard represents only a small portion of its
annual 50,000-case production, and the winery ultimately decided not to harvest its
Carmel Valley estate vineyard.
Isolated areas burned by the Soberanes Fire still smoldered when seasonal rains fell
in mid-October. The U.S. Forest Service declared the fire fully contained Oct. 13.
CAL
FIRE
