Day 9 of the #GlassFire.

Thank you to all of you for your continued support, thoughts and prayers as we face the impact of the Glass Fire. We will be updating this page as more information comes in from our member wineries regarding their status and the damage caused.

If you wish to support them please head over to their websites. A large number of them hold a certain amount of wine off-site and are still able to process wine orders.

Bale’s Creek Vineyard

Our vineyard sustained some damage to only one area of a new planting. The buildings have suffered smoke damage but nothing structural that we are aware of at this point. We seem to have been very fortunate.

Our information comes from our neighbors at Keenan Winery who were the saviors who prevented more extensive damage from burning straw in the vineyard with their fire fighting intervention. We are very grateful.

Our hearts go out to those who have not been so fortunate.

Jinny and Andrew Rudd

Bergman Family Vineyards

While reports are encouraging that Spring Mountain fire activity is starting to ease, we are still experiencing intermittent volatile fire activity at our 40-acre ranch and are actively working to secure our ranch infrastructure, vineyard, home and cottage with fires burning in our meadow unexpectedly overnight.

The fires are coming in from Bothe Park where much of the 2,000 acres have burned, so the fuel pressure coming in from that area continues to devour anything it can on our property that isn’t protected by breaks or manpower or backlighting of fires.  The meadow fire last night had jumped our containment lines, but the meadow acts as a secondary firebreak due to our active forestry management techniques in clearing underbrush and chipping dead vegetation annually.

Our ranch crew was able to put the meadow fire out, but CalFire also returned in force last night to help with plans for any further fire breaks or backlighting needed on our property.  We are happy to report we have transitioned back today to putting out spot fires and clearing underbrush between our ranch and the neighbors’ homes, vineyards and wineries below us along the highway. We are optimistic that our firefighting crew will be able to continue to protect our ranch where needed and to shield the fires from dropping down to our neighbors to the east along the highway.

Our wines for the 2020 harvest are currently fermenting in tanks offsite and are secure.  We also store our wines from our prior vintages offsite and they are not at risk at this time.  We are currently accepting sign-ups for our mailing list and expect to release our first wines in 2021.

We continue to be amazed at the incredible protection provided by CalFire and countless strike teams that have rotated over the course of this 8-day firefight on our ranch. We are hoping with cooler temperatures forecasted for week’s end that we will be able to hold off the fires until then.

You may direct any questions to inquire@bergmanestate.com
Bergman Estates website

Kieu Hoang Winery

Our Spring Mountain employees are safe and our winery is ok. We did lose some grapes near the driveway. Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Spring Mountain neighbors, Napa Valley’s residents, business owners, Fire Department and first respondents in the Napa Valley, Sonoma and surrounding areas.

Kieu Hoang Winery team
Website

Ritchie Creek Vineyard

Ritchie Creek Winery ViewDear Family and Friends – It is with a heavy heart that we inform you Ritchie Creek suffered heavy losses in the recent Glass Fire that devastated the Napa Valley. Andre and I lost our home. The winery was destroyed, and the vineyard was significantly impacted. Most unfortunately, our case good storage was destroyed as well, which contained much of the library wines of Ritchie Creek. Thankfully we were all able to evacuate safely. We have many fond memories of that special home and winery Andre’s father built, and they will help guide us as we rebuild and move forward.

We are so grateful for all the love and support you have shown us in the last few days. It means so much to us. Many of you have offered to help, please know that your thoughts and support are the silver lining that is keeping us going forward.

We look forward to the day when we can once again enjoy a great bottle of wine on the deck looking out into the vineyard, sharing stories and laughter with old friends and new.

With Love,
Andre and Tina Minor
Ritchie Creek Website