As deadly wildfires blazed through California’s wine country last week, claiming dozens of lives and destroying billions of dollars in property, Square Wine Co. owner Andrea Hillsey wanted to help. So the downtown business owner looked to social media to see if other sommeliers and retailers had ideas on how to support their colleagues in Sonoma and Napa Valley.
“The consensus was to make California wine front and center,” Hillsey says. “Pouring those wines by the glass will help with depletion and help that economic engine turn.”
Square Wine Co., 5 N. Pinckney St., is donating all proceeds from the sales of California wines this week to the Napa Valley Community Disaster Relief Fund, an organization providing food, shelter, medical care and counseling for survivors. “For us, it’s more about helping the people involved in the industry — the people who work in the vineyards, the people who lost houses,” Hillsey says. “We’re all part of the wine community and we’re all in this together.”
Table Wine, 2045 Atwood Ave. is also taking part in the fundraising effort. In addition to donating proceeds from California wine sales throughout the week, shop owner Molly Moran is also raising money via a California-centric, drop-in wine tasting at her shop on Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. Cost is $14.
“We’ve had a lot of customers asking and eager to help,” says Moran, who frequently hosts fundraisers for local charities. “Wine is a huge portion of the economy in California. We can’t ignore this.” According to industry groups Napa Valley Vintners and Sonoma County Winegrowers, the regions provide about 100,000 jobs and annually contribute more than $25 billion to California’s economy.
Both Moran and Hillsey report that their winemaking friends in California are still trying to figure out the extent of the damage. Luckily, between 80 and 90 percent of the grapes in Napa and Sonoma had already been harvested before the fires overtook the region. But there are lingering concerns about “smoke taint” affecting this year’s vintage. “We don’t necessarily know if the wine is going to be ok,” Moran says.
