Napa Valley Earthquake Hits Vineyards Hard
Posted on August 26, 2014
The numbers are starting to come for the Napa Valley earthquake that occurred Sunday and they are not good. Current estimates put the damage at $1 billion. Many wineries were hard hit by the quake.
David Duncan, the CEO of Silver Oak vineyards, posted this very sad photo of broken wine bottles that they found after the quake. Duncan tweeted that they were still without power at the winery as of yesterday. He was thankful that no one was hurt, but his photos of the damage they sustained are pretty bad.
The ongoing drought in California is leading to an earlier harvest of grapes. Some wineries had already moved wine out of storage, others suffered major losses. The damage across Napa that will cost the most to repair is damage to the infrastructure. Many buildings were damaged in the quake and will have to be inspected and repaired before they can be deemed safe to use.
Another vineyard that suffered damage is Trefethan Vineyards, which has been family owned for more than 40 years and is known, not only for its fabulous wines, but for its original winery which was built in 1886 when it housed a gravity flow winery. The building suffered structural damage during the earthquake but the family hopes they can save the building.
The Lake Berryessa News loaned its quadcopter to the winery to make an aerial survey of the damage. You can see that the damage to the structure is serious. Architects and engineers are creating a plan to save the historic building. Take a look: