Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/987926
WINEMAKING TECHNICAL SPOTLIGHT 44 WINES&VINES June 2018 877.250.8435 | contact@agcode.com| agcode.com PLANRECORDPRODUCE THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE VINEYARDMANAGEMENT SOLUTION IN THE INDUSTRY Utilizing AgCode's AM3 Timecard Funtionality, available on all your Apple iOS devices, data collection from pesticide to labor mangement has never been easier! A VINTAGE INTERRUPTED BY FIRE On Oct. 9, 2017, Ferrari Carano's red- wine production winery was humming along in the midst of another busy vin- tage. When winemaker Rebecka Deike arrived that Monday morning she had about 60 active ferments and another full day of receiving grapes scheduled. Instead, after a night of wild, unpredict- able winds she discovered the winery had no power. Those grape deliveries were canceled, and Deike and her team scrambled to find a generator, which they did and were able to get some work done. "That night the power came back on and we got our night crew in, and we started feeling like 'OK, we're going to be OK.' " But as she and almost everyone else in the region were soon to real- ize, the fires had just begun. Eventually the flames from the Pocket Fire began to close in on the mountaintop winery, and a day later it was evacuated. "The fires came right up against our property," Deike said. "It was really scary." The fires did come close—the black scars from the blazes were still visible in early April—but never damaged the winery. By the end of that first week of fires, Ferrari-Carano secured a permit from Sonoma County to send in a winery and harvest crew to check on the cellar and pick any remaining grapes. Deike recalled a sprawling convoy of employee cars parked along Highway 101 awaiting an escort to get up to the vineyards and winery. "It was a whole vineyard crew and our cellar crew in this huge convoy of cars. It had to be at least 50 cars," she said. She said a few of her fermentations were a bit more sluggish than normal but that, on the whole, everything stayed relatively stable. "The day we got back in I just wanted to cry," she said. "You feel like these are your chil- dren who you're taking care of, and you just abandon them and you're crossing your fingers hoping every- thing is going to be OK." The wines did OK and the remaining Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were picked. The wine produced from those grapes remains sepa- rated from the rest of the vintage as the winemaking staff continues to evaluate for any hint of smoke taint. "We actually do it all the time anyway," Deike said. "Keeping all the vineyard blocks separate is something we're quite used to." While the October 2017 wildfires threatened the mountain top winery and forced all winery personnel to evacuate, the flames did not damage the facility.