Vintage 2020 is edged in our memory with the covid pandemic, resulting in a world wide lock down. However, the wine business is mainly a grape farming business which cannot stop. In order to keep working safely, we had to learn “social distancing”. This vintage was also a challenging year weather wise. December brought a nice rain, but the rainfall was low in January. Then no rain occurred in February, making its the driest February of the last 10 years. February was also warmer with an average of 6F from the previous vintage.
2020 is also remembered as a smoky year with 2 major fires. Starting mid August after a lightning storm, 350 fires burnt all over California. The LNU Lightning Complex fire devasted across wine country area Lake, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Yolo counties an area of 352,913 acres, leaving a thick smock in the air. September 28, another fire “Glass Fire” begun on Silverado trail, Napa Valley. It spread very quickly burning, houses, wineries, vineyards and forests on 67,484 acres. All these obstacles stopped our 2020 Toquade vintage.
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