Wineries Assessing Damage of Napa Area 6.1 quake

PLEASE REPORT DAMAGE IN COMMENT SECTION OF THIS ARTICLE

Napa and Sonoma County wine businesses are rushing to assess the damage from a 6.1 earthquake epicentered west of the Napa County airport in the eastern part of the Carneros AVA.

Wineries, vineyards, warehousers and others with photos, information and damage to report should do so directly in the comments section of this post.

Editor Lewis Perdue will be notified of all comments and will follow up if needed.

UPDATE: 2:10 P.M., Sunday, August 24 — Good piece from Jon Bonné SF Chron: Winemakers evaluate Napa earthquake damage

UPDATED 11:53 a.m. — WII Editor Lewis Perdue drove the entire Carneros AVA from Sonoma Valley to its eastern border in Napa. Perdue visited almost very winery facility in the AVA and found little to no damage.

Many wineries had no personnel present so no assessment could be made of interior damage.

Structural Engineer, Joshua Marrow who studied wine industry damage following the Loma Prieta earthquake noted that the lack of people present may not indicate no damage.

He noted that after the Loma Prieta quake, it took 36-48 hours for wineries to “muster their troops.” The delay could be longer after today’s quake because it’s a Sunday during holiday season,

Most wineries who did have people there reported no damage. The only damage report from one winery which asked not to be named said it had some minor glass breakage in the tasting room and two barrels of red wine which were mostly empty because they had recently bottled them.

(update continues below)

No exterior damage was apparent at any of the massive wine warehouses near the Napa Valley airport or on Green Island.

Structural Engineer, Joshua Marrow who studied wine industry damage following the Loma Prieta earthquake said that stacked, palletized case goods tend to fare well because the shrink-wrap adds strength and stability of the tall, slender stacks.

Marrow said he is dropping everything to visit the area to study the effects.

US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SHAKE MAP

TANKS, WINERIES, WAREHOUSES VULNERABLE

Large stainless steel fermentation tanks, barrels, warehoused case goods, vineyard irrigation systems and water supply pipelines are all especially vulnerable.

Damage reports and photos can be posted directly to the comments area of this post as they are received.

LINKS

• Strong California quake causes injuries, damage
• Northern California quake: Child in chimney collapse among injured
• Northern California quake buckles North Bay roads
• Northern California quake cuts power in Sonoma
• Northern California quake: ‘It’s a disaster’