But this wine-to-be had not been touched for four days. The power was turned off in the combustible region, so the tanks and barrels inside the winery had heated up to dangerous temperatures as the fire neared. Because the winery is so small, 13 big plastic tubs and half a dozen wooden barrels of fermenting liquid are kept outside. The tubs produce 600 bottles of wine each; the barrels, 200 each.
Brunson opened up a white fermenting tub and stared at the crushed zinfandel grapes inside.
The two men looked crestfallen.
“It’s supposed to smell like fresh fruit and a little bit of alcohol and a little bit of carbon dioxide,” Brunson said. “That’s the byproduct. Now you can smell the starting of a vinegar, nail polish, ethyl acetate-y thing.”
Foppoli added: “We’re looking at a multimillion-dollar loss here.”
Sunday, November 03, 2019
Trying to Count the Losses
Evacuation-caused neglect and the power outage:
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As an Oklahoman I find this a bit puzzling. WE are used to power outages here and within minutes of a power loss we hear gas powered generators kicking in. I would guess that around 20% of homes have one. Hospitals, of course, have powerful back up generators also. It seems like a winery or other operation that produces perishable products would have a similar system. When millions of dollars are at stake it just seems to make sense.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I hope you had a happy birthdya last week!
-John
Yes, it seems a bit odd to me too. I would hope that the wineries were prepared. Maybe they weren't prepared enough. I don't know how long generators will work unattended. You might need to have generators prepared to work unattended for a week or more. It is also hard to permit Diesel generators in California. Maybe the wineries will now invest more in hardening their infrastructure.
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