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Lights Out Harvest

You may have heard the term “lights out defense” (as in this year’s 49er team) or the comment “that party was lights out”. The “lights out” description is meant to imply something unbeatable or unmatched.  This year’s harvest was definitely lights out- but in the literal sense.  Every harvest seems to have its challenges- the last few years, fire has been one of them.  This year, it is the “attempts” at preventing fire, via massive “preventative” power outages all over Northern California. Thankfully, this didn’t occur at the height of harvest, but it did and continues to negatively impact harvest for wineries all over Northern California.  

Vines in their autumn finery sans grapes

While the power being out affected the vineyards, the most impact was felt in the winery.  Being out in the country means being on a well… which requires electricity to run…which means, no electricity-no water.  In the vineyards, that meant no post-pick irrigation.  In the winery, that meant not being able to-er- flush the toilet.  We weren’t able to run the A/C or humidifier which means we had to keep all of the doors shut- so then we really couldn’t see inside the winery.  We couldn’t perform pump-overs because those are powered by a compressor and obviously, we couldn’t press or crush anything. Our biggest fear is that the yeast performing the fermentation will go crazy and we’ll get a heat spike.  That heat spike can lead to off-aromas and stalled fermentations.  Thanks to cold overnight temps, small fermentations with large lids, and A LOT of dry ice, no such event occurred. 

Grape leaf of red, green, and gold

Lastly, the Tasting Room and various events were impacted as well.  The Tasting Room has been closed multiple days within the last few weeks due to no power.  We had to cancel our annual Halloween Party due to no electricity as well.  Even with all of this, we are very fortunate in many ways…

So grateful for our little slice of paradise- rainbow over the vineyard

Despite the many power shut-downs, a massive fire sparked in a no-power zone, resulting in the catastrophic Kincaid Fire- located in a major wine region.  Multiple wineries burned down and many others were brought to a stand-still as the whole area was under mandatory evacuation. In light of this, we are counting our blessings at Naggiar Winery that we just experienced a little literal “lights out” and not a figurative “lights out” destruction of our winery.