In wine country, tourists sip Cab Sav amid the COVID-19 pandemic as the LNU Lightning Fire Complex rages.
Sonoma County wineries are reopening to an altered landscape
It’s hard to sell wine when the weather forecast is smoky, it’s raining ash and the global pandemic keeps people home. The people who live here are simply exhausted. We are tired of the anxiety, the packing and unpacking, and the fear of losing our loved ones and our homes. Besides, the region is pricing out its workers. Most people who work at wineries live far from them in less expensive towns such as Vacaville, Fairfield, Windsor, Healdsburg and Santa Rosa.
Yet those locations have suffered the most from wildfires. I asked my co-workers why anyone would choose to live on the outskirts of the valley where rolling dry grasslands are prone to fires. It seemed obvious that those homes are risky investments considering the danger. But I was repeatedly told the same thing: It wasn’t like this until a few years ago.Each year we wait patiently for the annual grape harvest, which starts in mid-August.
The winery I work for has been closed for a week because of bad air quality and its location in an evacuation zone. When we reopen, who will want to visit?
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