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WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 48 WINES&VINES March 2018 I t was supposed to be a simple move into an urban winery located in a commercial neighborhood. In early 2017, winemaker Jeff Cohn moved produc- tion of his eponymous brand into its own production space, a warehouse winery that already had been used for winemaking for years. Cohn wouldn't even have to add drains to the concrete floors. He knew there wouldn't be any hot water, but he had purchased an AaquaTools HotCart (a portable, propane- powered water heater) that worked quite well to give the place a thorough power wash and scrub down. After moving in Feb. 1, 2017, Cohn repainted the walls and got down to the business of winemaking, but he soon discovered that other equipment such as a small, Pall cross-flow filter wasn't working the way it should. It turned out that, rather than 240-volt power, the facility had 208 volts. Cohn figures the previous occupant had been using some type of transformer. "There are certain things you don't discover until you start using the building" he said when Wines & Vines visited in December. "We knew there wasn't any hot water, so that was not such a shock to us, but the electri- cal was." Then, in October, as Cohn's first harvest in the new winery was starting in earnest, disaster struck. The win- ery is located off of Coffey Lane in northern Santa Rosa, Calif.—less than 2 miles away from the Coffey Park neigh- borhood that was completely destroyed in the fast-mov- ing and violent October 2017 firestorm. A smoky first harvest Cohn and his wife, Alexandra, who is co-owner and the winery's chief financial officer, live in Alameda, Calif., but Cohn has an apartment in Santa Rosa that he uses during harvest. Nearly all of the vineyards Cohn buys grapes from are in Sonoma County. The winemaker remembers hearing strong winds and smelling smoke the night of Oct. 8, when he went to bed at 10:30 p.m., but he didn't think much of it. By 1:30 a.m., he was being ordered to evacuate. As Cohn begins to talk about that first night and week of the fires, Alexandra shouts from across the winery and joins the conversation. It's a scene likely to be repeated in Northern California's wine industry for years to come, the commiserative sharing of each person's experience during the fires. Alexandra had jumped in to explain how a friend whom they hadn't heard from in years called to offer to help, because he knew they had moved their business to Sonoma County. At that moment, Cohn was stranded at the evacuation center at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, because his car had a burst radiator. The friend was able to get Cohn and his car back to Alameda, and the winemaker was able to return to Santa Rosa by 4 p.m. the next day. While Cohn could get into his winery, he didn't have any power, and the entire neigh- borhood (including the winery) was filled with a thick, noxious smoke. Cohn said he was lucky to have a batch of sanitizer and cleaner prepared, so he did a quick round Jeff Cohn Cellars Fire, water and electricity complicate opening of new urban cellar By Andrew Adams TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT Winemaker Jeff Cohn ferments in stainless steel, concrete and oak.