Butte Fire- Wine Community News

Here is the latest

From Kevin Locke, Owner

Locke Vineyards

Mountain Ranch and Murphys, Calaveras County

Unfortunately Locke Vineyards lost its Mountain Ranch Vineyard which is 5 acres of Zinfandel grapes.  We lost this year’s crop plus damage to vines, drip irrigation, fencing.  Only time will tell how many of the vines will survive.  Our main vineyard in Murphys with our barn event center and tasting room downtown are all fine, We will be open this weekend and part of our proceeds will go to help families that lost their homes.  Our neighbor adjacent to our Mountain Ranch Vineyard lost their house.  Thank you for your concern and helping spread the sad news.   Hopefully you can encourage people to come support the community by visiting and aiding in any way that they can.

Randy Nathan writes:
I am on the front lines of the fire on Frigo City Road.  The Wilsonville vineyards are gone. Flicker Oaks,  Calaveras Creek winery and Star Canyon vineyards were not affected;  Chatom is safe. .I don't know about many other ones.

From Evelyn Reyes-Umana
Bodega Del Sur
Vineyard:  Mountain Ranch
Tasting Room:  Murphys

This photo with all the signposts is the road to Mountain Ranch in Calaveras County.  We were told by a volunteer fireman who lives nearby that our winery survived, but there is no way to know until we get there.  Hopefully we will do that later this week.

From Diane Gray
Renner Winery

We have been equally frustrated by the lack of a centralized credible information source. We had just finished harvesting so we are happy that our staff and friends won't have to work outside in that suffocating smoke. We are terribly sorry about the horrible losses suffered by our friends in Mountain Ranch.
      We hope that Murphys will return to the bustling wine loving community as soon as the smoke clears.

From Joe Gates
Catano Winery
San Andreas

Currently I can’t come back if I leave. So spent some time making more clearance around house with a dozer. The winery is under the house. Made up some sprinklers for building roof. Picking some touriga national grapes but leaving them on the truck. The tempranillo needs to be pressed, but when picking I have great view and can see Calfire on the hills. When they start working again,I can figure out which way they think the fire will come back toward us

     The fire is moving very fast!

From Ghee Sanchez- Hagedorn
Villa Vallecito Vineyards Inc.

Here on the peninsula overlooking Lake Melones where our winery & vineyard reside are fine. We had completed our last pick the day the fire started. With the exception of ash & very smoky skies, we have been spared. Our Tasting room in Murphys did not open Fri.-Sun. If all goes well with the brave firefighting efforts we hope to re- open on Fri. Our regular days of operation are Fri.-Sun. 

From Jean-Jacques

Domaine Becquet Winery

Murphys, Calaveras County

Murphys was quite sad this week-end. We were open like a few other wineries.

But many were closed. And very few visitors were in town. We can understand why. 

We all intend to resume business as soon as possible this week, except if some of us

had problems with fire.

From Jeff Stai
Twisted Oaks

Vallecito, Calaveras County

 On Friday we in Murphys were put on an advisory evacuation, we are still technically on advisory but they made great progress yesterday. The only traffic restrictions are the local roads that go into areas that were evacuated. The main highways and roads are open to normal traffic.
      Many Murphys businesses - stores and restaurants - are staying open and are eager to have visitors, and have locals who might just want a break.
      Twisted Oak Winery is open at both of our locations - the winery in Vallecito between Murphys and Angels Camp on Highway 4 at Red Hill Road, and in Murphys on 363 Main Street - from 11:30 to 5:30.
       Until the Butte Fire is contained (or the end of September), wine tasting at both tasting rooms is complimentary. Please do come and visit, share your stories, and enjoy our community.

From Larry Aderman
Frogs Tooth Winery

As you know our winery is quite removed from Murphys...as we are located in Copperopolis.  We closed our Murphys TR on Friday and have not reopened as of this writing.
     Yesterday morning we received grapes from Cornish Vineyards located in Murphys.  The picking crew would not pick because of the density of the smoke, so these folks called friends to help.
     Last night we picked the last of the fruit from our vineyard. The Grenache was wonderful looking.  Now to processing.
     The fire is within 3 miles or less of our home...although there now is a substantial fire line that it has to cross along with highway 4.
     Murphys has been a ghost town with lots of fire equipment and personnel.  Waiting for this morning's briefing.