Northern California quake could impact Valley wine businesses
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- An earthquake that hit the northern San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday damaged many of the famous wineries across Napa County. The quake could have an impact on businesses in the Central Valley.
For Richard Hammond, the wine business is a family affair. He and his wife own Moravia Winery, and his son is working in Napa Valley as a wine buyer. So when he heard the news Sunday morning, his first thought was about the wine.
"They have to be real careful going in through the barrels because they could do more damage in the process of trying to clean up," said Hammond.
Their son Nick Hammond says many of the businesses in the Napa Valley area are still assessing how much damage the quake has caused.
"I've lost 10 of our 2013 vintage barrels unfortunately, but I know at the location where we make our wine has heard about wineries that lost more barrels than we did," he said.
Some restaurants are open for business, Hammond says, but for other shops it'll be a while before they're up and running.
"It seems the business people are scared it's going to scare people off from coming into Napa," said Richard Hammond. "This is their big tourist time, their harvest time. Everyone wants to see the grapes going in."
Most of the damage for wineries will be in their stored barrels, according to Hammond. The grapes themselves likely won't be affected.
Hammond says the wine industry as a whole shouldn't be affected by the earthquake, so consumers shouldn't see pricing go up for their wine.
