California Wildfires Raze Napa Wine Spots To Ash

The Silverado Trail has long been a place of dreams for
Napa Valley wine lovers as it winds gently through vineyards and on
to Calistoga.

California’s Glass Fire turned much of that dream to ash,
destroying a 3-star restaurant at Meadowood resort, torching
wineries such as Chateau Boswell, and tainting precious grapes with
smoke.

The United States’s west coast is experiencing a record-breaking
fire season, with five of the state’s six biggest blazes in history
currently burning, and nearly four million acres scorched.

At least a dozen Napa wineries and vineyards were burned as the
inferno erupted this week, with the scorched area now spanning
almost 50,000 acres (20,200 hectares).

On Wednesday at the Trailside Inn Bed and Breakfast, the
skeletal remains of a bus converted into an RV (campervan) sat in a
smouldering patch near a vintage Packard car with paint melted off
the hood.

Smoke rose along the road and on hillsides, where crews of
firefighters could be seen attacking pockets of flame with picks,
shovels and hoses.

Wineries that weren’t in ruins were closed, often unattended
because people had been ordered to evacuate the area and not
allowed back in.

A guard stood watch at the entrance to Meadowood, where chef
Christopher Kostow had turned the resort’s eponymous restaurant a
dining experience that earned three Michelin stars.

While some other parts of the resort were spared, the restaurant
was obliterated.

Flames also headed for Kostow’s house in Calistoga, only to burn
around the home instead of through it.

“Losing your restaurant and your home would have been a
double-hit no one could take,” said Calistoga Mayor Chris Canning,
who checked on Kostow’s home for him due to the evacuation.

– Trailer park luxury –

Flames jetted from broken propane gas lines in the remnants of
high-end mobile homes at the luxurious Calistoga Ranch, which has
swimming pools, a lake, and a hilltop mountain along with hiking
trails.

“It was unlike any trailer park you’ve ever seen,” Firefighter
Matt Macdonald of nearby Sonoma said while looking over the still
smouldering landscape.

Near a “valet parking” sign were heat-twisted remains of golf
carts once used to shuttle guests around the property.

“It’s all very sad,” said a Napa County sheriff deputy watching
over a vineyard on the Silverado Trail.

“People who come here each have their own memories, usually
about a winery they love because it became special to them.”

In nearby Calistoga, known for geothermal hot springs, mud
baths, and wine tours, the cellar master at Castello di Amorosa
braved the thick smoke and fire to assess the damage.

Flames gutted a stone farmhouse used to store wine but spared
the faux Medieval Italian castle made of material brought in from
Europe.

The farmhouse held about 120,000 bottles of wine, valued at
about $5 million, while it is expected to cost another $10 million
to $12 million to restore the building, according to owner Dario
Sattui.

– ‘2020 sucks’ –

Flames ringed the city of Calistoga, creeping slowly down dry,
brown hillsides. Vineyards, with their green vines and lack of
underbrush, acted as fire brakes in the absence of strong wind.

The main street was deserted, from the Calistoga Inn to
Copperfield Books and the Indian Springs lodge know for its giant
pool of geothermal water coming to the surface from deep in the
earth.

Calistoga has become a world-renowned Wine Country destination
since it was incorporated in 1886, and the town of about 5,200
residents typically sees more than a million visitors annually,
according to Mayor Canning.

The pandemic struck a blow to the tourism and wine business, and
now wildfires have claimed coveted destinations.

“2020 sucks, I want this year over,” Canning said. “We’ll come
back, but let’s get all of this out of the way in 2020 so in future
years we are done.”

-AFP

Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/10/01/california-wildfires-raze-napa-wine-spots-to-ash/

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