How the L.A. Wildfires Have Impacted the Wine Community

• By WineBottleMag
• January 16, 2025
• Community Impacted L.A Wildfires Wine
• With 0 comments

Swimming pools and beach bungalows greatly outnumber vineyards and estate wineries around Los Angeles, but wine pumps through the city’s cultural veins more today than ever. That means sommeliers, urban winemakers, tasting room staffers and even those who own wineries elsewhere find themselves on the frontlines of the wildfires that began devastating the region on January 7. 

Many are personally affected, losing their homes and everything they owned in the blazes. But even more are now engaged in helping their neighbors cope with the tragedies and move forward into an unsure future. 

Though more than a dozen restaurants were burned to the ground by the Palisades and Eaton fires, the only wine industry-specific destruction happened to Rosenthal Wine Bar & Patio in Malibu, a popular tasting room located right across Pacific Coast Highway from the ocean. One of the first structures destroyed on Thursday, January 7, the night the fire broke out, the business is citing an unclear future on social media and directing support to its staff via this GoFundMe page. 

‘Pure Luck’ for Pali Wine Founder

No winery is more directly tied to the soul of the Pacific Palisades than Pali Wine Co., which was named after the seaside neighborhood, now a mostly scorched community. Owner Tim Perr has lived there for 35 years, and was driving north to his winery in Santa Barbara County on Tuesday morning when the red flag warnings came through. They weren’t out of the ordinary, nor was the mandatory evacuation that came soon after, forcing his wife and adult son out of the home. 

“We’ve never seen a wildfire get to town in all the years we’ve been there,” says Perr, whose family only took one car and a small amount of possessions, being so used to such conditions. “We just thought they were being overcautious.” 

When the danger became more stark, Perr turned back to Los Angeles, and watched the scenes unfold while at his son’s home throughout Tuesday night.

“We started hearing rumors that maybe a couple houses were getting burned, and it just grew as the night went on,” he says. “By Wednesday morning, we started hearing from our neighbors that their houses were gone en masse. Pretty much every single person we knew that had a home in the Palisades, regardless of where they lived, they lost their house.”

As neighbors snuck back in to assess the damage, one sent back photos of his own home burned down, right across the street from the Perrs’. While consoling him over texts, they nervously asked if their house was gone too. “It was kind of an awkward thing,” says Perr. “But he told us our house was there.” 

The Perrs later hiked in through the thick smoke on Wednesday to find most of their block burned down. Firefighters were using their home’s water supply to fight spot fires, including one that started on their straw mat while they gathered more stuff from the home. 

“Our block was the threshold of where the fire reached in that part of the Palisades,” says Perr. “Everything from a few houses down from ours, all the way to the town, was completely burned down. Our house was exactly where the fire stopped on Tuesday. It was pure luck.” 

The four offices where he built his consulting company Perr & Knight over the decades, however, were all gone. Luckily, they’d move operations to Santa Monica in 2010. 

To support recovery efforts, Pali Wine Co. accepted donations this week of shelf-stable foods and ready-to-eat meals at all of their tasting rooms around Southern California, from Santa Barbara to Anaheim and San Diego. They also launched a webpage with other suggestions.  

While dealing with his own survivor’s guilt, Perr worries about the future for his neighbors. His primary job—and the one that funded Pali Wine Co.’s creation 20 years ago—is working as an actuary for insurance companies, so he knows homeowners insurance issues like few others. 

He’s already looked at the policies for about 15 friends who lost their homes, and it’s not good. “What I’m seeing is a vast amount of underinsurance,” he says, explaining that many estimate rebuilds to cost $300 to $400 a square foot. With competition for skills and the value of resources about to skyrocket like never before, Perr explains, “It wouldn’t be surprising that the costs are more like double if not more.”

He expects rebuilding efforts to take at least five years, probably more like a decade. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen to the area,” he says, explaining that a 10-year project for people like him in their 60s or older is a tough pill to swallow. “We’re very lucky. I just wish there was more I could do for these other people. There’s gonna be some sad stories.”

L.A. Winemakers React

So far, the Los Angeles firestorm has not consumed any commercial vineyards. The flames have raged alongside the Malibu Coast appellation, but that region’s vines were mostly decimated by previous fires, most notably the 2018 Woolsey Fire. 

AJA Vineyards watched 18 homes and a number of small vineyards perish on their own street during that blaze seven years ago, leaving their vines as one of the only true Malibu estates remaining. 

“We’re one the few,” says AJA’s Amanda Greenbaum, whose parents have been unable to return to their home on the vineyard for a week due to no power. “We’re grateful to be the ambassadors to the Malibu Coast. There’s not many commercial vineyards in the area anymore.”

Her recently opened tasting room on an urban block of Santa Monica was just two blocks from an evacuation zone—and one staff member lost his home—but she was able to finally reopen this week. She’s planning to host a fundraiser for the Rosenthal Wine Bar staff there, and is donating proceeds from sales of her AJA VIneyards 2018 “5” Red Blend to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. The wine was harvested two weeks before the Woolsey Fire decimated their neighborhood, so the Greenbaums renamed their property the Miracle Vineyard. 

let adType_6789853eb9fb0 = “leaderboard”;
// Create the element
let script_6789853eb9fb0 = document.createElement(“script”);

script_6789853eb9fb0.innerHTML = `
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};
googletag.cmd.push(function() {

var mapping;
// Size mapping for leaderboard ads
var lbmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[970, 250], [970, 90], [1, 1], [728, 90]])
.addSize([728, 0], [[728, 90], [1, 1]])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 50], [300, 100], [320, 50], [320, 100]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [320, 50]])
.build();
// Size mapping for med rectengle ads
var medrecmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[300, 600],[300, 250]])
.addSize([728, 0], [300, 250])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1],[300, 250]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 250]])
.build()
//var lbSlots = [[[320, 100], [728, 90], [300, 100], [1, 1], [300, 50], [970, 250], [320, 50], [970, 90]]];
//var medrecSlots = [[300, 600], [1, 1], [300, 250]];

mapping = adType_6789853eb9fb0 == ‘leaderboard’ ? lbmapping : medrecmapping;
googletag.defineSlot(‘/39808611/article_page/article_leaderboard_1’, [],
‘div-gpt-ad-6789853eb9fb0’).addService(googletag.pubads()).defineSizeMapping(mapping);
googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); //maybe optional
googletag.pubads().refresh(); //maybe optional
googletag.enableServices();

});
`;

//checking to see if script is inserted in the header successfully
if (document.head.appendChild(script_6789853eb9fb0)) {
//variable holding the rendering body
document.getElementById(“gptBodySection-6789853eb9fb0”).innerHTML = `

`;
}

Amy Luftig from Angeleno Wines, which is a leader in the recent resurgence of a Los Angeles winemaking community, happily reported that the fires have not yet affected the regions of Agua Dulce, Antelope Valley and Rancho Cucamonga where most of their grapes are grown. 

“Right now our focus has been on the members of our wine community who lost their homes,” says Luftig, who knows at least three wine club members suffering as much. 

“It has been unreal hearing the stories of tragedy and courage that have been told to us by our wine club members, customers, friends and family that have been affected,” says Angeleno co-owner Jasper Dickson. “One of our longest standing customers told me the heroic story of how her husband, two sons, father and brother fought to save their local high school from burning down and actually succeeded.”

Angeleno is offering free wine delivery, the use of vehicles and free wine club membership for the next year to their affected members. They are also planning to donate 50% of upcoming sales to fundraising. 

“Our guiding philosophy has been that these members have supported us, and now we need to support them,” says Luftig, who was volunteering at the YMCA earlier this week. 

Mark Blatty of Byron Blatty Wines closed his Highland Park tasting room due to the smoke but is reopening on Thursday. “As such a tiny business it can be hard to make an impact,” he says. “But we’re hoping that even just having our doors open again gives people a place to come and gather, and perhaps begin to get back to some sense of normalcy, whatever that might look like.”

All three are deeply concerned about the months and years ahead. 

“The food and beverage industry in this city is again knocked to its knees,” says Luftig, noting COVID, inflation and the strikes by writers and actors. “It sometimes feels like we can’t get off our feet in this city. Now with the fires, people are understandably not going out yet again. We have seen bars and restaurants permanently close already. I am an optimist by occupational requirement, but everyone here knows this is going to get harder, not easier, in the months to come.”

Dickson adds, “It will surely choke an already impossible housing market in this city, further alienating the existence of the middle class here.”

Hospitality Pros Unite

There’s been an outpouring of relief efforts from the vast hospitality community of Los Angeles and beyond, especially since so many prominent restaurant and wine professionals have been affected. Hundreds, if not thousands, of GoFundMe campaigns are currently underway across the region.  

One example is veteran sommelier Paul Sherman, who worked for years at Valentino’s in Santa Monica. “He’s one of the pillars of the sommelier community. He’s just very beloved,” says Bonnie Graves, herself a longtime sommelier, wine event producer and founder of Girl Meets Grape. “His house burned down completely.”

Public relations pro Anne Michi Kleinedler Alderete, who works with an array of L.A. hospitality clients through her company FWDPR, collected as many GoFundMe pages related to the restaurant business as she could find. Then she released them on a Google Doc. 

“We know many people in the hospitality industry impacted by the fires and wanted to have a centralized place where people who’ve dined at their restaurants or enjoyed a wine pairing can go and help them in their time of need,” she says. “The L.A. restaurant community has faced so many challenges in recent times yet provide so much joy to Angelenos, we have to rally to take care of these folks, many of whom lack insurance or savings.”

let adType_6789853eba99b = “leaderboard”;
// Create the element
let script_6789853eba99b = document.createElement(“script”);

script_6789853eba99b.innerHTML = `
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};
googletag.cmd.push(function() {

var mapping;
// Size mapping for leaderboard ads
var lbmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[970, 250], [970, 90], [1, 1], [728, 90]])
.addSize([728, 0], [[728, 90], [1, 1]])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 50], [300, 100], [320, 50], [320, 100]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [320, 50]])
.build();
// Size mapping for med rectengle ads
var medrecmapping = googletag.sizeMapping()
.addSize([1024, 0], [[300, 600],[300, 250]])
.addSize([728, 0], [300, 250])
.addSize([320, 0], [[1, 1],[300, 250]])
.addSize([0, 0], [[1, 1], [300, 250]])
.build()
//var lbSlots = [[[320, 100], [728, 90], [300, 100], [1, 1], [300, 50], [970, 250], [320, 50], [970, 90]]];
//var medrecSlots = [[300, 600], [1, 1], [300, 250]];

mapping = adType_6789853eba99b == ‘leaderboard’ ? lbmapping : medrecmapping;
googletag.defineSlot(‘/39808611/article_page/article_leaderboard_2’, [],
‘div-gpt-ad-6789853eba99b’).addService(googletag.pubads()).defineSizeMapping(mapping);
googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest();
googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); //maybe optional
googletag.pubads().refresh(); //maybe optional
googletag.enableServices();

});
`;

//checking to see if script is inserted in the header successfully
if (document.head.appendChild(script_6789853eba99b)) {
//variable holding the rendering body
document.getElementById(“gptBodySection-6789853eba99b”).innerHTML = `

`;
}

Support is pouring in from across the country as well. The United Sommeliers Foundation is offering emergency grants of $500 and then more funds on a case-by-case basis for paying basic bills, like rent, mortgage, utilities, car payments and the like. It’s the same protocols the foundation created when it was established during COVID, which have since been applied to every major disaster as well as to personal struggles, like somms fighting cancer or a death in the family. 

“One of the ironies of our industry is that while sommeliers deal in luxury, they themselves tend to not live a particularly luxurious life, usually paycheck-to-paycheck, just as Ferrari salespeople don’t drive Ferraris,” says Erik Segelbaum, USF’s vice president. “The goal of USF, first and foremost, is to provide emergency financial assistance to wine professionals in critical financial need due to circumstances beyond their control, such as the L.A. wildfires.”

The foundation reported a surge of applications following the blazes, reaching into the hundreds. Only the recent Hurricane Helene relief efforts have approached this volume. 

“We haven’t had disasters at this scale until the past six months,” says Segelbaum. “It’s been a big learning curve understanding what each area needs.”

Fundraising events are already in the works, including the LA Fire Fundraiser, which will occur March 12 and 13 in Santa Monica. Modeling it after an event hosted in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, the organizer, Ian Blackburn of LearnAboutWine.com, hopes to raise $1 billion over two nights.  

Amidst all this ruin, sometimes a warm meal is all anyone needs. That’s what Bonnie Graves, of Girl Meets Grape, has learned in her years of living and dealing with fires around Topanga Canyon. Though she’s been in talks to help with upcoming L.A. Fire Fundraiser as well as another by David Fink, her main activity has been “stress cooking” and delivering food to families that no longer have homes or are stuck in remote canyons. 

“I know about 40 families who lost their homes,” she says. “So I make pasta.”

---

More Natural Disaster Coverage

• Helene devastated western North Carolina’s wine industry—here’s how to help.
• The eruption of Mount St. Helen prepared winemakers for future wildfires.
• Where there’s smoke, there’s tainted grapes: how researchers are trying to remedy smoke taint.
• As wildfires rage across wine country, the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force aims to help.
• Amidst wildfires, white Pinot Noir emerges as a savior in Oregon and British Columbia.

The post How the L.A. Wildfires Have Impacted the Wine Community appeared first on Wine Enthusiast.

Source link