With wildfires still blazing in Northern California and 222,000 acres already destroyed, vineyard workers are breathing particulate-filled air as they bring in the grape crop. Many of the workers are undocumented and can’t afford to lose a paycheck even if their homes were destroyed in the fires that have consumed the region.
Managers at the Napa Valley Slinson Vineyard, owned by C. Mondavi and Family, offered workers white masks to filter out some of the smoke, but “most preferred to work unobstructed. A few wore bandanas over their mouths and noses, as they worked through the night,” says the Los Angeles Times. Fine wineries typically pick at night, since sunlight can alter the acidity and sugar in grapes.
According to Judd Wallenbrock, the winery’s president and chief executive, “the vineyard is operating on a skeleton crew because it’s become difficult to get the workers the winery contracts with to and from the Napa area because of all the fires,” says the Times.
About 10 percent of Napa’s grape harvest still needs to be gathered; most of it was picked before the fires started. While some vineyards and tasting rooms were taken by the flames, most were spared. However, some of the farmworkers at Slinson and other operations weren’t so fortunate.
Ruben Hernandez, who helps manage a winery and vineyard in Glen Ellen, Calif., says he’s been unable to work since the fires started, and worries about providing for his family. Yet, he knows other immigrants who were even less lucky, losing both their homes and the vineyards where they labored. Most didn’t have rental insurance.