Vineyard {511} Survives Napa Earthquake

Thanks to all of you who emailed or sent text messages following the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck Napa Valley early on the morning of Sunday, August 24.

Neither Irene or I were at our home on Diamond Mountain at the time. Irene was in Redondo Beach while I attended a "guys" weekend event in Woodside.  Although Woodside is about 80 miles from the epicenter, an extremely strong jolt lasting about 5 seconds woke me up at 3:20 am.  I did not find out about the location of the epicenter until later in the morning.

Although our Diamond Mountain vineyard  and home are located near Calistoga at the northern end of Napa Valley (about 30 miles north of the epicenter), our wine is made at Jessup Cellars Winery in the city of Napa and our fulfillment house, where we store and ship our bottled wine, is located in American Canyon. The cities of Napa and American Canyon were the hardest hit by the earthquake.

While Jessup Cellars Winery suffered some damage, none of our wine was harmed. Similarly, our fulfillment house was not damaged - all of our wine is intact. We were very fortunate unlike many other wineries that lost wine in both barrels and bottles. I've seen estimates that the total damage from the earthquake is likely to run between $500 million and $1 billion.

Irene and I arrived back at Vineyard 511 late Sunday afternoon.  Although there was evidence of strong shaking at our residence (pictures askew, drawers open), there was no damage -- and no broken bottles in our wine cellar!

Thanks again for reaching out to us -- its great to know that we have such caring friends!

Cheers,

Ed and Irene Ojdana

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