Napa Valley Wineries Picking Up the Pieces After Earthquake
— -- Wineries in Napa Valley are inspecting damage to vineyards and wine cellars after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake hit northern California early this morning.
The earthquake's epicenter was located just six miles south-southwest of Napa, Calif., the center of America's wine industry. This is the strongest seismic event to hit the region in 25 years.
American Canyon, a city that houses some of the largest wine warehouses in Napa, was also impacted by the earthquake. According to Stonebridge Research, a wine-industry consulting group, many of the relatively new warehouses are equipped for earthquake damage.
The earthquake will likely not impact grape harvests, as many wineries have already begun their harvests, according to Stonebridge Research.
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David Duncan, CEO of Silver Oak, says that the Oakville, Calif.-based winery is "fortunate," despite the damage his vineyard sustained. He tweeted photos of spilled wine bottles this morning.
Duncan told ABC News that the bottles are reference wines used to assess how wines change over time across different vineyard properties, but he added that they are worth "several hundred dollars a bottle."
Silver Oak also sustained damage to its water main, Duncan said.
Other Napa wineries that were damaged by the earthquake included Mathiassons Wine and the Hess Collection.
"Goodbye chimney," Mathiassons Wine wrote on its Instagram page with the hashtag "napaearthquake."
It is still unclear how much wine Mathiassons lost in the earthquake, according to its Twitter page.
The Hess Collection is still assessing the damage it sustained this morning.
"We do have some damage ... will need to wait on Mother Nature to turn on a bit more light to fully grasp the extent of our damage ... updates to come," the company wrote on its Facebook page.
The earthquake's total impact on wineries in Napa Valley remains to be seen.
