Last Year's Lake County Fires Not Expected to Affect Napa, Sonoma Vintages

The effect of last year's big Lake County fires shouldn't be noticeable in either the quality or price of wines from vineyards in Napa and Sonoma counties. That's according to two industry groups, the Wine Institute and Napa Valley Vintners.

A report in the Guardian newspaper last week stated that tons of grapes had to be discarded after being contaminated by smoke from the fires. But Patsy McGaughy, communications director for Napa Valley Vintners, says that's not accurate.

"The whole time that the fires were burning, the smoke was blowing in the opposite direction, away from the Napa Valley," she says. "Our prevailing winds come from the San Francisco Bay, and the major wildfires were to our north."

The net effect was that prevailing winds kept the smoke away.

The yield from last year's wine grape harvest was a little less than average, McGaughy says -- not due to the fires, but because of warm weather last winter that hit while the vines were in flower. But the three previous years, 2012, 2013 and 2014, were bumper crops for Napa wines.

"So even though the 2015 harvest is a little bit lighter than average, we don't think wineries will feel any pressure to raise prices," McGaughy said.

Rob McMillan, executive vice president of Silicon Valley Bank's wine division, agrees that consumers won't see -- or taste -- any difference related to last fall's smoky conditions.  That doesn't mean the devastating fires had no effect. It just wasn't on the grapes.

"The focus should remain on the people in the county who lost their homes, many of whom were employees of wineries," he says. "The story is about the human catastrophe of thousands of destroyed homes and displaced people who lost all that they own, and are trying to get the basics of life still -- like getting their mail, new socks and a shower.  When it comes to this kind of tragedy, wine is nothing more than a product -- and far less important than a bar of Ivory soap."