2017 Napa Valley Vintage

The season opened with relief. Winter rains ended five years of drought, and the water in the soil pushed vines into vigorous growth with full canopies. What followed was heat on a scale veterans had not seen. June delivered five days at 105 degrees. Then, in early September, a near-record spike drove downtown St. Helena to 113 degrees. Russell Bevan, working across a wide spread of Napa vineyards, counted more days over 107 degrees than in any vintage of the previous 50 years. Growers farmed through it rather than around it, running overhead sprinklers and misters and hanging shade cloth to hold fruit and vine temperatures down. Bevan ran his sprinklers for 30 minutes every two hours whenever the thermometer passed 98 degrees. That cooling slowed sugar accumulation rather than accelerating it. On his own farming, Bevan watched Brix climb from 22.9 to 26.2 across the six weeks from September 1 to October 15, a gradual rise rather than a spike. Grapegrower Andy Beckstoffer reported picking Cabernet clusters at 25 to 26 Brix that year, against a more typical 27 to 28, after the Labor Day heat. By the time the fires broke out on the night of October 8, approximately 90 percent of the valley's tonnage was in, and 75 percent of its Cabernet Sauvignon. The fruit still hanging was predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon, whose thicker skins resist smoke better than other varieties. Harvest in Oakville was delayed by evacuations along the Silverado Trail until October 12, then ran at full throttle on October 13 and 14. In the final harvest reports of the season, O'Shaughnessy Estate on Howell Mountain expected to finish before the end of that week, Smith-Madrone in the Spring Mountain District expected at least another week or more of mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, Bell Wine Cellars in Yountville brought in the majority of its Cabernet that week, Trefethen in the Oak Knoll District had picked nearly 90 percent before the fires and expected to finish the remainder, and Hyde Vineyards in Carneros reported harvest winding up for many.

• Winter rains ended a five-year drought, leaving soil moisture that drove vigorous vine and canopy growth
• Five days at 105 degrees in June, and a near-record early-September spike at 113 degrees in downtown St. Helena
• Growers used overhead sprinklers, misters and shade cloth; Russell Bevan ran sprinklers 30 minutes every two hours above 98 degrees
• Sugars rose gradually under sprinkler cooling, from 22.9 to 26.2 Brix between September 1 and October 15 on Bevan's own farming
• Andy Beckstoffer picked Cabernet at 25 to 26 Brix rather than the more typical 27 to 28
• Roughly 90 percent of tonnage and 75 percent of Cabernet Sauvignon were picked before October 8
• Oakville harvest was delayed by Silverado Trail evacuations until October 12, then ran at full throttle October 13 and 14

On the night of Sunday, October 8, 2017, the Atlas Fire, the Nuns Fire (a combination of five fires on the west side of Napa Valley) and the Tubbs Fire near Calistoga and Santa Rosa began burning across Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Solano and Lake counties. By October 18, Napa Valley Vintners had heard from 330 of its more than 530 member wineries. Forty-seven reported direct fire damage, and a handful experienced significant property loss. Containment that day stood at 83 percent on the Atlas Fire, 80 percent on the Nuns Fire and 91 percent on the Tubbs Fire. Michael Honig of Honig Vineyard and Winery, then chair of the Napa Valley Vintners board, and Andy Beckstoffer both spoke to the human toll alongside the industry impact. Smoke settled unevenly. It was reported as worse in the city of Napa than on the valley floor at Oakville, Rutherford and St. Helena, or on the hillsides at Pritchard Hill and Howell Mountain where most of Napa's Cabernet Sauvignon grows. Smoke from the Nuns Fire was visible from the valley floor near Oakville over the weekend of October 14 and 15. Opus One and others harvested by the light of the flaming hills above To Kalon. At Saint Helena Winery, roughly half the estate had been picked before the fires; harvest resumed on October 14, about four days behind schedule, with grapes arriving at normal Brix and very few raisins, which the winery attributed in part to overhead sprinkler use during September's high temperatures. On Howell Mountain, O'Shaughnessy Estate and, in the Spring Mountain District, Smith-Madrone both reported being largely spared direct fire damage and most smoke, and continued picking through the fire period. Beckstoffer's crews delivered more than 4,000 tons of grapes to over 130 wineries during the fire period, with no grapes rejected.

• Atlas, Nuns and Tubbs fires began the night of Sunday, October 8, 2017 across five counties
• By October 18, 47 of the 330 responding Napa Valley Vintners member wineries reported direct fire damage, a handful with significant property loss
• Containment on October 18: Atlas 83 percent, Nuns 80 percent, Tubbs 91 percent
• Smoke was reported worse in the city of Napa than on the valley floor or the Cabernet hillsides at Pritchard Hill and Howell Mountain
• Saint Helena Winery resumed picking October 14, about four days behind schedule, with normal Brix and very few raisins
• Beckstoffer crews delivered over 4,000 tons to more than 130 wineries during the fire period with no grapes rejected

Growers did not guess. They tested, repeatedly, through ETS Laboratories in St. Helena, and the results came back consistently low. On October 16, one week after the fires started, Andy Beckstoffer compared a washed cluster sample against an unwashed one and found no detectable difference and no smoke taint. Geoff Smith of Blueline Vineyard ran water-blasted rows against non-blasted rows and reported zero difference in smoke taint. Roy Piper tested both fermentation-tank wine and grapes picked on Pritchard Hill on October 17, and both came in at the lowest detectable level. Russell Bevan, with 137 lots in hand spanning nearly every Napa AVA and varietal, found smoke taint in only two vineyards, one in the Bennett Valley area and one on the far side of Atlas Peak. Timing explains much of it. In 2008, the comparison year for fire and smoke in Napa, the grapes were still green and pre-veraison, so both fruit and skins took up smoke. In 2017 the fruit was post-veraison with hardened skins, and the damage was correspondingly less. When vintners gathered in St. Helena on November 2, 2017 to take stock, the consensus was that the heat of the growing season, not smoke, would define 2017.

• Multiple growers tested fruit and wine through ETS Laboratories in St. Helena during and after the fires
• Beckstoffer's washed versus unwashed cluster test on October 16 showed no detectable difference and no smoke taint
• Geoff Smith of Blueline Vineyard found zero difference between water-blasted and non-blasted rows
• Roy Piper's October 17 Pritchard Hill grape and tank-wine samples both came in at the lowest detectable level
• Russell Bevan found smoke taint in only two of the vineyards behind his 137 lots
• Post-veraison hardened skins in 2017 absorbed less smoke than the green, pre-veraison fruit of the 2008 fire year