Striking images reveal toll wildfires took on wineries

BY ALISON MAIN From Mashable

Remarkable photos reveal how badly California’s wineries have been damaged in wildfires that have burned tens of thousands of acres of wine country since Sunday.

Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, California is just one of the dozens of wineries that was ravaged by the massive fires.

In the midst of the blaze, a large plastic wine container melted, releasing a boiling pool of wine, according to SF Gate.

“I saw a pool of wine, and it was flowing lightly down the hill, and as I got close to it, I noticed that it was bubbling,” photographer Josh Edelson told the news outlet. “At first, I didn’t understand it, but then it dawned on me that the ground was hot, and the wine was boiling with all that stuff smoldering around it.”

Edelson captured pictures of the haunting scene at Paradise Ridge on Tuesday.

Paradise Ridge Winery owner Sonia Byck-Barwick told CNN the property is completely burned, and all of the grapes they had picked for the season have been lost. Byck-Barwick said she hopes to keep the business alive in the face of destruction by using a small building on the property as a tasting room for visitors.

Many other wineries have experienced varying degrees of damage, and at least a dozen have been completely destroyed, according to The Mercury Times.

Fans of the wineries expressed their concern on Twitter.

The fires in Northern California have destroyed at least 5,700 homes and businesses, and have displaced 90,000 people as of Friday afternoon, according to the Associated Press. At least 35 people have died, making these fires the deadliest and most destructive in the state’s history.

The two deadliest fires — the Tubbs and Atlas fires in Napa and Sonoma Counties — moved quickly through wine country due to strong winds, making it difficult for firefighters to contain them.

IMAGES:

A pool of wine boils beneath debris from the fire at Paradise Ridge Winery.
IMAGE: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A melted wine container leaks wine onto the ground at Paradise Ridge Winery.
IMAGE: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Charred fermentation tanks drip wine at a destroyed Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa.
IMAGE: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Melted wine bottles are among the remains of the Signorello Estate Winery in Napa, California.
IMAGE: JOSH EDELSON/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

TWITTER – Bill Swindell, Karin Oconnell, Trevor Hughes

A mother hen and her (well-camouflaged) chicks scratch and peck for food in the burned earth at a Calistoga-area winery.

Wine grapes are destroyed by the Tubbs Fire on October 11, 2017 in Kenwood, California.
IMAGE: EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES

The gutted remains of Paradise Ridge winery. #sonomafire #wine. Owner says he will rebuild.

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