OAKVILLE Early morning fire destroys winery's storage area, wine cellar Silver Oak Cellars says losses amount to millions of dollars
Jim Doyle, SF Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, February 3, 2006
A fire destroyed a historic wine cellar in Napa Valley on Thursday, causing millions of dollars in damage to a 7,000-square-foot building at the Silver Oak Cellars' Oakville Winery.
Authorities said the fire began in a dumpster at dawn, then quickly spread to the historic structure -- a milk barn and wine warehouse. The building was being used for storing wine barrels, marketing materials, merchandise and maintenance equipment.
However, the main part of the winery -- built more recently -- received relatively minor damage from heat and smoke.
"The firefighters did an amazing job to keep it from going to the main structure," said Capt. John Lovie of the California Department of Forestry. "The owners told us their loss was in the millions."
He said the fire was noticed at dawn by a 70-year-old neighbor and his wife, who smelled the smoke when they were walking, and then called 911 at 6:35 a.m. once they returned home.
It took several hours for about 50 firefighters from CDF, the Napa County Fire Department and the cities of St. Helena, Calistoga, and American Canyon to put out the blaze. One firefighter's hand was burned, Lovie said.
He said that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting in the investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
"While we are saddened by this loss, we are fortunate that no persons were injured and that the main part of the winery was not significantly damaged," said a statement on the winery's Web site.
The winery plans to go ahead Saturday with its 2001 vintage "New Release Day'' in Geyserville and Oakville.
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Regardless of anyone's personal preference (referring to some sentiment that Silver Oak is no longer what it once was), it is a sad day when any winery (any one, for that matter) has a disaster. Silver Oak's annual 'release day' celebrations bring very large crowds of fans to their facilities in Oakville (Napa) and Geyserville (Sonoma) each release. They used to celebrate with the rather odd pairing of Krispy Kreme donuts accompanying the wine, and it became something of a cult event. Now they serve real food. Last year there had top be 1500 people at the Oakville event. It would be very hard to be there this weekend, picking up the aroma of charred wood with every taste. :-[