As the Gifford Fire continues to burn, two local vineyards chose to close for the day on Friday, because they are in evacuation warning zones.
"Yesterday, we learned that this area had fallen under an evacuation warning," said Brian Talley, President of Talley Vineyards. "And so, just given the very dynamic nature of how quickly things were changing, and out of an abundance of caution, we just decided to close. And part of that was [that] we didn't want to expose our employees or the public to a dangerous situation. Coupled with the fact that we also didn't want any unnecessary traffic that might interfere with emergency response in this area."
The Talley family has operated in Arroyo Grande since the 1940s.
"It's been, it's been quite a while since we've had a significant wildfire impact," Talley said. "And it's never caused us to close the tasting room before."
Talley Vineyards wasn't the only one to close its doors for the day. Just six minutes away, Chamisal Vineyards also posted on their social media pages announcing the closure for the day.
They were not available for an interview, but cited similar concerns on their post.
"Friday can be the busiest day of the week. And so, certainly it is impacting our business to make the decision to be closed today," Talley said.
The impact from the wildfire may be felt longer than just a temporary closure.
"We are concerned about potential smoke," Talley said. "We are concerned about potential smoke taint in the vineyard, and that's something that we're monitoring."
Dr. Suraj Kar, an assistant professor of viticulture at Cal Poly, says smoke can have a big impact on wine grapes and the final wine product.
"That smoke can cause a sort of a ashy, burnt rubber, burnt meat, sort of, not very attractive flavor in wine," Kar said.
Talley says that they intend to harvest their grapes towards the middle of September, and Professor Kar says this time is when the grapes are most susceptible to the impacts of smoke.
"The compounds that are coming from smoke get absorbed by the berry and fixed by the berry or the sugar inside the berry," Kar said. "Then, during fermentation, they get released into the wine and that creates that smoke tainted, the taste, the smoke tainted quality or, you know, the repulsive character of smoke taint in wine."
Talley says that for the time being, the smoke is far enough away that they shouldn't see too much of an impact, and that once the Gifford Fire has settled, they will be able to conduct tests on their grapes to know for sure.
