Winemaker's Journal — Napa wineries shook hard by Aug. quake
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Two 10,000-gallon tanks of wine toppled at the Michael Pozzan Winery in Napa during the Aug. 24 earthquake.
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Barrels scattered at the Michael Pozzan Winery in Napa by the Aug. 24 earthquake.
I recently made my annual trip to Northern California to visit family and friends. I was especially looking forward to seeing my niece, Kimberly, whose wedding I missed earlier this summer. It sounded like I missed the wedding of the century, at least for my family.
Kimberly is now happily married to Matt Pozzan. Matt's parents own Michael Pozzan Winery in Napa, a fine Italian style winery that produces about 125,000 cases of wine annually and distributes to most states. Hence the wonderful vineyard wedding and reception that went on for three days. I guess I really missed out.
I was also eager to talk to Matt and Kimberly about the earthquake that had hit Napa just the day before my arrival in California. Kimberly was pretty shaken up and her home a jumble of broken glass and pottery after the 4 a.m. Aug. 24 quake. Fortunately, there was no serious damage. The apartment where she lived before the wedding, however, was structurally damaged and some of her friends found themselves suddenly homeless. The City of Napa estimates residential and commercial property damage from the 6.0 level quake at more than $300 million, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Many Napa wineries were also hit hard. Wine officials estimate losses at more than $50 million. Major wineries like Hess Collection and Glenellen reported loss of thousands of gallons of wine as huge stainless steel tanks crumpled.
Matt said Pozzan Winery was more fortunate. Stacks of barrels tumbled and two 10,000-gallon tanks toppled. One of the tanks ruptured. The wine was that of the winery's former winemaker who took a huge loss. The other tank that held Pozzan wine was uprighted with a crane without loss of wine.
"We were very lucky. We lost about 65 cases of our lower end wine," Matt said. Some small wineries lost nearly their entire vintage and will likely be put out of business, he said.
We drank a couple of bottles of Pozzan wine that evening, including a special bottling of Zinfandel for Matt and Kimberly's wedding. The special Zin and Michael Pozzan Merlot I thought were excellent, the pinot noir quite good as well. Exceptional wines with a personal touch from an exceptional couple.