Firefighters in Pacific Palisades, 9 January 2025.
In early January, Los Angeles was devastated by multiple wildfires throughout the city. The three largest fires have burned 19,382ha and destroyed over 10,000 homes.
Beginning 7 January, newscasters warned of ‘life-threatening’ winds throughout the Los Angeles area and issued Red Flag Warnings (indicating a strong potential for wildfire growth).
The Palisades Fire began that morning, decimating the Pacific Palisades and parts of Malibu, tearing through neighbourhoods at an immense rate of speed. That evening, the Eaton Fire began in Altadena, and by the middle of the night, entire neighbourhoods were reduced to rubble.
The Los Angeles wildfires defined the next 10 days of the city, popping up and moving into densely populated areas of Pasadena, Westwood, Brentwood, Santa Monica and Encino.
Personal and professional heartache
‘The safety of the staff was my biggest concern. It felt like a game of whack-a-mole with so many fires throughout the week that every day we were waiting until 2pm to decide if we could open, based on who might need to evacuate,’ said Rebecca Rose Phillips, wine director and managing partner at Vintage Wine + Eats and Buvette wine bars.
Amanda Rubin, owner of AJA Vineyards, has a tasting room and vineyards that fall within Red Flag Warning zones. The tasting room was two blocks from evacuation zones where curfews were enacted to prevent looting. Like Rose Phillips, Rubin made a decision daily on whether to open for business.
After the chaos of the first few days of fires, details of devastation began to emerge. Photos of a completely levelled Rosenthal Winery tasting room on Pacific Coast Highway circulated. Unlike the Woolsey Fire of 2018 that decimated Malibu, the Santa Monica Mountains and multiple vineyards, it does not appear that any commercial vineyards were damaged.
Many local wine professionals, including Kristin Olszewski, the founder of local canned wine brand Nomadica, and Diego Meraviglia, Italian wine consultant and president of the North American Sommelier Association, lost their homes.
Credit: Rebecca Rose Phillips
Uniting in relief efforts
Nicole Lalagüe, owner and head sommelier at Pasadena Wine Shop, was visiting Uruguay when the wildfires broke out. Lalagüe got the disorienting call that her home had burned down, flew home and immediately mobilised. She could not open the shop and operate normally, but the idea emerged to pull wine from inventory and give it away to local community members. However, pesky alcohol laws prohibited the ability to give wine away. Lalagüe created inexpensive wine packages for people to purchase and subsidise on behalf of a local community member. Word spread, and thus far, 30 wineries have donated wine.
Now, 100% of the purchase price of the packages is donated to the California Fire Foundation. In ten days, she has sold over $25,000 of wine with a goal of $50,000 in sales. Business as usual will come for the Pasadena Wine Shop. ‘I do not doubt that when we reopen, the community will be there for us. Pasadena and Altadena are tight-knit. They will take care of us.’
Wineries and distributors can still contribute to the initiative through the end of February by emailing: [email protected].
Rose Phillips and her neighbours quickly arranged to accept donations from the community and drop them off at local shelters and organisations. An Instagram post from 10 January was shared almost 250 times, and locals were lined up on the streets before opening hours to deliver donations.
AJA Vineyards and its tasting room were spared, unlike in 2018 when the Woolsey Fire caused extensive smoke damage to the building structure. In that fire, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) saved AJA’s estate vineyard, now dubbed the Miracle Vineyard. In light of that good luck, AJA Vineyards is donating all of the proceeds of its 2018 FIVE Red Wine Blend from that vineyard to the LAFD Foundation for a…
Source : https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/los-angeles-wildfires-devastated-the-local-wine-industry-whats-next-549876/
