Three years on from the fire, our vineyard is strong and healthy and we celebrated a fantastic 2023 harvest. The harvest was complicated over 4 separate days, and concluded in late October. However, this vintage may be exceptional due to the slow ripening and exquisite numbers! We look forward to bottling our 2022 very soon. While we had hoped to make the 2023 vintage in our own, new winery, the rebuild process continues to be full of obstacles. Our current challenge, one we had not anticipated early on, is dealing with a changed geological landscape. The fire exposed what was once a densely wooded hillside behind us, and with few trees to stabilize the soil and rocks, there is a hazard of falling boulders. We are working with geologists and engineers and have devised a plan to mitigate this rockfall hazard. But, because of an October 15th prohibition for excavation, this work cannot begin until the Spring. Similarly we now have concrete requirements on the septic rebuild, but cannot begin until the Spring. Following these systems will be the installation of a required 10k gallon water tank system. The driveway, drainage system and utilities will follow. Now that we have a more concrete understanding of the costs, and our budget, we are on the search for an architect and engineer. We hope to have plans to take out to bid in late Spring. It remains to be seen when we will begin construction, but completion by the 2024 harvest seems more and more unlikely. And, we are not alone in this timeline. Only 233 permits are in process out of over 900+ lost homes. Meanwhile, we are busy working to put the finishing touches on the remediation of "Grandma's House." The hard work over the summer has paid off to make this important family home nearly fully operational again.
While we work through the rebuild process, Ryan Beauregard continues to generously and skillfully produce our wine, and we are grateful for his support. We would not be in business without him and his team.
We are approaching the third anniversary of the fire, and the rebuild process continues to be an absolute slog. In February of 2023 only 24 of over 900+ homes have been rebuilt. We have been busy though over the summer working with geologist and engineers to devise our rock fall hazard mitigation strategy, and a plan to rebuild our septic system per County requirements for our situation. It has been a very very slow and painful process. But, by the end of September we hope to have this process wrapped up. On the positive side, our mediation with the insurance company for the surviving house concluded. We have been focused all Summer (and months before this as well) on remediating this important family home. Because of the smoke damage, in addition to deep cleaning, we had to replace the carpet, HVAC system, paint it, and replace most linens and upholstered furniture in the house. We also took the opportunity to fully go through all family contents and sort to keepsake/heirlooms, trash or donation. Due to intense heat there was also 3 large windows that were blown out that had to be replaced, as well as other exterior damages to the structure. Plumbing fixtures and appliances had to be serviced. Countless other damages and maintenance items had to be addressed. It has been a huge effort, and a big focus of Annalisa and Brandon's time this Summer. And, you guessed it, more tree debris cleanup work has continued to take up time. The vineyard continues to be healthy, and the vineyard work continues to be a healthy focus area to escape from all the tasks yet to complete. We are grateful for the vineyard to sustain this property. We look forward to harvest season. The summer has been very cool, and we expect a late harvest.
Wow, what a winter! There's been historic rains in December and the early part of 2023. Not much can happen onsite during this time. We continue to grind through the insurance claims process, and now have a newer slog to get through. The outcome of our Pre-Clearance review with Santa Cruz County is that we have to address the rock fall hazard. To do so, we have to hire a Geological Engineer to quantify the hazard, and map it. Then, we have to hire a Geo Technical Engineer (and possibly a Civil Engineer) to design a retaining system. On the plus side we have some flexibility on where to move the building to minimize these costs. Secondly, we were unable to make progress with the County Environmental Health Department on what is specifically required for our site. So, we have hired a Septic Consulting Engineer to manage this going forward. The vineyard is healthy, but Spring conditions have not been ideal for bloom. We are still awaiting the outcome of the lawsuit for the surviving house, but have entered mediation to avoid a trial. We hope for the best. We've been given the go ahead from the lawyer to move forward. Much work is to be done to make the house habitable again. We have begin to build a fence around the pool using redwood posts we milled from the winery site. More trees have fallen due to the storms. Unfortunately we lost two redwoods, one branch narrowly missing our new well! When the weather cleared we began more milling and more wood debris cleanup!
We just celebrated the 2022 Harvest! The crop is very small, but high quality fruit. Once again we are grateful to Ryan Beauregard from Beauregard Vineyards for agreeing to make our wine at his facility for another year. We could not stay in business without him. We also celebrate the release of our 2020 Christie Vineyard vintage, which was made on our behalf by John Benedetti at Sante Arcangeli Family Winery. We also recently bottled our 2021 Estate and 2021 Swan Clone. On the rebuild front we have submitted our Pre-Clearance application to Sant Cruz County, and are working through their feedback on requirements for the septic system rebuild. Unfortunately, we were flagged as a "rock fall hazard,"" due to the newly exposed hillside behind our winery and cabin. We need to dig in to determine next steps. But until those things are resolved, we cannot file for a building permit, and we need to determine cost of these requirements before establishing a budget for rebuilding the buildings. We continue to clear the site of wood debris, and have at this point whittled it down to wood we want to mill. Milling began in the fall and we will have redwood for siding and furniture, decking etc., and some good strong fir for framing. There are still very large trees trunks stacked. Their future is uncertain. We continue to wait for lawsuit for Grandma's house to run it's course, and the house remains uninhabitable. We remain grateful to be back on the property in the Tiny Home.
This summer the tree work continues! It costs a lot of money to move the large trunks off the property. So, we have been sorting the best ones for future milling, and having others hauled offsite. We have been focused on hauling and grinding the scrap. Work in the vineyard is relatively normal, and when doing that work it almost feels normal again. The insurance process remains arduous. For the winery site, much will depend on the outcome of our Pre-Clearance submissions, and any County requirements that come from that. The insurance company for the main surviving house has dug in their heels, and we are waiting the outcome of the lawsuit. Grandma's house remains uninhabitable. We are still feeling blessed to be able to stay on the property in the Tiny Home.
This spring the vineyard is looking strong. Plants that had to be replaced in 2021 are coming along nicely. We continue to do lots of tree work. We also now have power to the parcel, and we have repaired the well, and run a new water main from the well up to the edge of the future rebuild site. We are preparing a Site Plan and getting ready to submit our Pre-Clearance application to the County, which is a precursor to obtaining building permits. They will evaluate Fire Clearance, Geological Hazards, and Environmental Health (Well/Septic). The surrounding landscape has changed so much as we have cut down the dead trees, but the redwoods are coming back, and the meadows and vineyard are back to normal in appearance. The future tree line of the winery area is coming into focus. Unfortunately we had to fell a 200+ ft. Doug Fir that used to be behind our cabin. It started to turn over the winter, and projects to fall toward the building sites in the future. With all the large equipment on site, we've taken the opportunity to upgrade our irrigation supply and manifold. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Roscoe, our Border Collie this spring. He lived a full life, and died at age 15.
The main house continues to be uninhabitable, and some disagreements have arisen between our family and the insurance company. We have hired a lawyer and will be suing them. They have not provided money for covered losses that are necessary for full remediation. Because of this, as well as the potential timeline for a replacement for our cabin (the Caboose), we have decided to purchase a Tiny Home so that we can be back on the property. Having access to a place to stay in Felton has been very helpful, but we'd save so much time by just being able to stay on the property. Our Tiny Home arrived in late January, and we are ecstatic to be back in Bonny Doon! We prepared a place for it down by the pool area near the vineyard.
This Winter and early Spring has been all about tree damage remediation. Everywhere on the property are trees that are on the ground, standing dead, or likely to die. The longer they remain up, the more dangerous they are to be around and to eventually handle. Most Doug Firs that burned 50% or more around their perimeter will die. We are trying to save each an every Redwood we can, as well as Live Oaks. We have prioritized tree removal by rebuild sites, wells, and any tree that could fall on the surviving house, vineyard, fencing or pool areas. It is hundreds of trees. Some trees are hundreds of feet tall. Tree work has taken months, and we are not done. After the trees are felled, you have to chip the branches, buck them into manageable lengths and organize them. It takes big equipment. Then the real work beings to figure out what to do with all the trunks, and bark. This will take years. But in the meantime, this allows us to begin cleaning up the rebuild site areas and move on toward site development. Funding for this comes from insurance proceeds, but are limited. The cost exceeds the funding by quite a lot.
We are now well over a year out from the fire, and we remain in the midst of a large rebuild and restoration effort. The majority of our vineyard remains healthy and productive, but we have not begun rebuilding our winery facility or cabin. We are focused on land restoration and establishing new water sources and utilities. We hope to be fully rebuilt by harvest 2023. Until then there are no current plans to be open to the public. With the help from our friends at Sante Archangeli Family Winery and Beauregard Vineyards, we will continue to produce wine from our Estate vineyard. And, we will continue to sell wine. We recently released the very few cases we of 2019 that escaped the fire. You can order directly from us via email or a phone call. Please see our contact info for more information.
It is harvest! A little over a year from the fire and the vineyard is doing well. We had a fun and productive 2021 Estate harvest. We have still not begun construction as we are still preparing the site and working through County regulations and permit process. Ryan Beauregard has agreed to make our wine at Beauregard Vineyards down the road. We are eternally grateful for his generosity, without which we may not be able to make wine right now. Here are some pictures from harvest. We picked on September 7th, 2021.
The last few months at the winery site, and around the vineyard and surviving house has been about tree removal. Hundreds of trees need to be felled and disposed of. It is likely we will not be able to secure insurance, so we want to ensure that we have a good fire clearance, and have removed all hazardous trees from around each site where we will rebuild, and perimeters around surviving structures and infrastructure. We will also need to clear areas in order to redig trenches for water lines and utilities. The well for the winery and cabin still needs to be repaired. The septic system has been inspected, and we are engaging with the County to figure our requirements for the rebuild. Our insurance company finally let us remove the winery slab, so there is bare dirt now where the winery stood. While we negotiate the insurance policies and claims for the winery and cabin, we are also trying to rebuild on the adjacent parcel around the surviving house (grandma's house). The house was heavily smoke damaged, and is uninhabitable. While we navigating the insurance policy for that parcel, we are focused on tree removal and rebuilding the pool. The pool is a big priority, as it will be our only water source in case of future fires (for now, until we install water tanks). The water tank we had on the property burned. The pool area will have a fire hydrant going forward that will allow us (or firefighters) to pump water directly from the pool. We also look forward to having a place of reprieve that will be fun for the kids when we are on the property working.
The last few months have been hard. As more and more remediation efforts needed to be managed on site, and normal spring vineyard work increasing, we found ourselves at the property a lot. The insurance company for the surviving house was arguing with us over what was needed for smoke damage remediation, leaving us without a habitable home on the property to stay at while we worked. Luckily, a long time ago, Linda McHenry had secured an insurance policy for our cabin (which was a total loss) that enabled us to have money (Loss of Use Coverage) to rent another place while we rebuild. After some tough negotiation with the insurance company we were finally able to secure a place for us to stay in Felton. This made life much easier, and enabled us to have a place for Henry to stay, and for us to be able to bring the kids to the site for more than a day at a time. Prior to this, we were in hotels, and AirBnBs when we needed to be onsite for more than a day. The vineyard continues to progress, and we are enjoying the regular work in the vineyard to take our mind off all the other tasks. Our 1964 Red International Harvester tractor also finally died, and we used some of the insurance money to buy a new tractor. This money will come out of funds for rebuilding, but without a tractor, no vineyard, so it had to be done.
We finally got the go ahead and scheduled the debris removal for the cabin and the winery. The winery insurance company is still fighting us on removing the slab for the winery. We have hired an engineer to produce a report about the integrity of the slab. It is most assuredly not usable due to the rebar basically melting inside the wall. So, we have removed the debris and slab for the cabin, but just the debris for the winery at this point. It is a big relief to have the sites cleaned of debris and ash, and really represents a point where we can think about what is next.
Progress with insurance companies is slow going. The meadows are green again, but many dead and dying trees remain standing. We have submitted a report outlining the damages to our vineyard. We are still waiting for an assessment of the loss from the insurance company, and approval to remove the debris. Because we are a mixed commercial and residential loss site, we cannot use the Public option from debris removal. In the meantime we are in a race to put up or repair 1000s of lineal feet of deer fencing before bud break. Deer have been wreaking havoc, and we need fences up so they don't completely destroy next year's crop at bud break. We have a significant amount of tree work to do around the building sites. We are lining up contractors for this big task now.
We continue to work through the insurance claim process, but are turning our focus to remediating critical infrastructure. Thanks to Tom's Well Service and Hammer Electric, one of the two destroyed wells is back up and running. This well can be used for the vineyard and the surviving house. These are photos of the damaged well from the fire before they were fixed. In addition to the well site, there were several areas with above ground manifolds that burned and had to be repaired to get water from the well to the vineyard and the house.
We have decided to purchase fruit from Christie Vineyard in Corralitos. Our 2020 crop was a bumper crop, and it is a very big loss for us. Given we lost the majority of our 2019, and all of our 2018, the loss of the 2020 crop to smoke taint means we are down three vintages. But, we are going to make about 150 cases of this wine, which is well short of what we would have had from the bumper 2020 crop. Amazingly, John Benedetti of Sante Arcangeli Family Wines has agreed to make this wine at his facility. We harvested September 22, 2020!
Henry and Annie have finally had a chance to get to the property and sort through the ashes. The area was on lockdown for quite some time. The work is just beginning.
Harvest 2020: In order to get our crop insurance money, we had to make a small batch of wine from the grapes that had smoke taint. This wine had to be sent to a lab and the results were then submitted to the insurance company. We brought grapes to Henry in Davis, and did an old fashioned grape stomp with the kids. The wine had over 200 PPM of Guaicol, which is the main component of smoke taint. Despite our sadness we tried to make it fun for the kids. Later, we had the crew come and "drop the crop." Since we could not harvest the fruit, we still needed to get it off the vine for the long term health of the plants.
As many of you know, our winery and land have been surrounded by the vast and destructive CZU Lightning Complex Fire. We have been able to do a brief assessment and are sad to share that our winery and cabin have burned down. We have lost our 2018 and most of the 2019 vintages, our library of old wines, and all of our wine making equipment. On the positive side, crews were able to save other structures and our vineyard. We are not sure if they were the brave local brigades and volunteer fire fighters made up of Bonny Doon neighbors or the Cal Fire teams (or a combination of all of them). We are especially grateful as we had just replanted 20% of our vineyard this year. The vineyard sustained some minor damage, and we lost our well systems as well. The 2020 crop is intact, but is likely lost due to smoke damage. The beautiful redwood forest on our land is thought to have been burned as well. We are hoping that the majestic tree line that is pictured on our label will survive. We are heartbroken. This land is special to our family, and we will do our best to rebuild and keep alive the McHenry family tradition of making great Pinot noir. The fire is still burning in Bonny Doon and many homes are still at risk. Our heart goes out to all of our neighbors who have suffered losses. We are grateful to be a part of this extraordinarily compassionate, brave, and resilient community. Thank you for all of your well wishes and support. -Annalisa, Brandon and Henry
