California Wine Country Rebuilds as Climate Change and Wildfire Threats Persist nytimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nytimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Nuns Canyon Vineyard / Photo courtesy of Hamel Family Wines
On April 21, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a regional drought emergency for Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Following a winter with extremely low levels of rain, the area’s main sources of irrigation water, Lake Mendocino and Lake Sonoma, are in short supply.
Drought conditions are not new for local growers, unfortunately. Many continue to adjust their viticultural practices to adapt to the ever-changing climate.
Following the 2020 Glass Fire, Elizabeth Tangney, viticulturist and winemaker at Cornell Vineyards, spent the last eight months revitalizing the mountain-top property in the Fountaingrove AVA in Sonoma Valley. Due to various levels of heat damage, 11 of the estate’s 20 blocks are scheduled for a replant.
Soot on the base of a vine post-fire in Cornell Vineyards. Photo by Matt Morris.
“The Gamble fire came from the north, 15-10 from the south, and Hennessey from the west they all came here and partied,” says Craig Becker, the proprietor of Somerston Estate in Napa, Calif. The 1,682-acre property saw approximately 1,400 acres of damage, including the loss of 20,000 vines during the LNU Lightning Complex Fire.
Becker is just one of many growers whose vines were damaged during the 2020 wildfires at the peak of harvest. Now, at the start of the 2021 growing season, California’s vintners are once again bracing for another potentially difficult year: Drought emergencies have already been declared in Sonoma and Mendocino counties.