Wildfire ravaged their friends. Tri-City wineries helping — 1 glass at a time

Brian Rudin, a Red Mountain winemaker, scarcely knows anyone in the California wine industry who isn’t hosting guests on a sofa or sleeping on one.

“It’s extraordinarily chaotic down in California still,” said Rudin, who makes wines for Napa-based Duckhorn Wine Co. under the Red Mountain Canvasback brand.

The close-knit Red Mountain AVA wineries are teaming up this weekend to raise money for their friends, colleagues and mentors to the south. About a dozen wineries and vineyards are earmarking proceeds from tasting room sales and donations to help out.

Rudin said the fires came at a particularly difficult time: Harvest. Workers already were putting in 15-hour days for weeks. Dealing with the fire and its aftermath has placed staggering pressure on people who had little time to even do laundry.

Flames spared Duckhorn facilities, but Rudin said several colleagues lost homes. He described workers racing back on closed roads to hook up generators at wineries that had lost power — or lose entire vintages.

“Everybody got back to work the second they could, even before the roads opened,” he said.

Duckhorn opened Canvasback on Red Mountain in 2012. The one-man winery crushes about 300 tons a year and focuses primarily on merlot produced from Red Mountain grapes. It doesn’t have a tasting room, yet.

Lara Hastings, executive director for the Red Mountain winery alliance, is marshaling the local effort to help. She called it a natural move for a close-knit industry with both personal and professional ties to northern California. .

“It’s a small world,” she said. “The winery world is even smaller.”

The wildfires killed at least 42 people, destroyed 7,000 homes and other structures and inflicted more than $1 billion in damage, according to estimates released this week by the California Insurance Commissioner.

Hightower Cellars in Benton City is among those dedicating proceeds from sales to the effort. Tim Hightower said the winery will donate 20 percent of its tasting room sales through Sunday to the fund.

Hightower, which is sampling its estate, reserve, cabernet and merlots this weekend, is is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 19418 E 583 PR NE. Hightower said it’s a exciting weekend for visitors with harvest still going on.

Other participants include Hedges Family Estate, Fidelitas Wines, Frichette Winery, Hamilton Cellars, Hedges Family Estate, Kiona Vineyards & Winery, Tapteil Vineyard Winery and Terra Blanca Winery & Estate Vineyard.

Ambassador and Henry Earl, which have off-mountain wineries and tasting rooms, are participating as well.

For a map of Red Mountain wineries, visit gotastewine.com.

This story was originally published October 20, 2017 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Wildfire ravaged their friends. Tri-City wineries helping — 1 glass at a time."