The Glass fire “burned rapidly…through Napa Valley’s famed Sliverado Trail, known for its wineries” and claimed the four-decade-old Chateau Boswell Winery northwest of St. Helena, California, said the Los Angeles Times. The wildfire swept over 11,000 acres and threatened thousands of structures as of midday Monday. “Ash could be seen falling from the sky throughout the region.”
The evacuation zone in the northern Napa Valley, part of Napa County, included a campus of the Culinary Institute of America. Authorities also ordered evacuations in parts of wine-producing Sonoma County.
At the Napa Valley Reserve, a wine club in St. Helena, winemaker Marco Grissi and two other men sprayed water on the roof of a building that housed three vintages of wine, reported the Sacramento Bee. “There’s $60 million in wine in there,” Grissi told a Cal Fire crew.
There are more than five dozen wineries in the St. Helena area, said USA Today. California’s wine country “has been scarred by terrible fires in recent years, including the Tubbs Fire that killed 22 people and destroyed more than 5,600 structures in 2017.”
Wine Spectator said Chateau Boswell was “just across the Silverado Trail from Rombauer winery and a mile north of Duckhorn.” Extensive damage was reported at Hourglass winery near Calistoga and Tuck Beckstoffer Vineyards near St. Helena. The co-owner of Mending Wall winery said the fire “burned right up to the tasting room doors” and that 10 tons of grapes still on the vine would be a total loss.