An Estimated 80% of Napa Cabernet May Be Lost to Fire and Smoke
“2020 is my new four-letter swear word.”
A pile of melted and burned wine bottles lies at Castello Di Amorosa winery as the Glass fire continues to burn in Calistoga, Calif., on October 1.
Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP
On the evening of Sept. 27, when winemaker Chris Howell saw flames on a ridge a mile away from Cain Vineyard and Winery, he and his wife Katie Lazar knew they had to leave.
A few hours later, Cain was engulfed by the region’s latest blaze, the Glass Fire, which has since metastasized into a group of fires known as the Glass Fire Incident. Wind-propelled flames and smoke billowed up from the canyon, between the two ridges, and moved over from the Sonoma side of the mountain. It destroyed Cain’s winery, an historic 1871 barn, barrels of the highly regarded 2019 vintage that was aging in the cellar, as well as all of his new wine harvested this year.