This story is reprinted courtesy Northwest Wine Report.

Over the weekend, a fire ripped through an area of Benton City burning approximately 1,151 acres including several structures. The proximity of the fire, called the Second Street Fire, to the Red Mountain, Goose Gap and Candy Mountain appellations raised concerns about potential fire and smoke impacts in these areas.

There have been no reports of damage to any winery structures, and most area vineyards also appear to have avoided the worst of it. Still, it is expected that hundreds of tons of grapes will be left unharvested due to concerns about potential smoke impact. The level of concern is dependent on the specific location.

“I’m really more worried about Candy Mountain, not too much about Red Mountain,” says Marshall Edwards, who manages hundreds of acres of vineyards in the two appellations for Shaw Vineyards. “Anything that’s south of (State Route) 224 on Red Mountain, I’m a bit worried about the smoke, but the smoke went right at Candy Mountain.”

Candy Mountain, which was approved as an appellation in 2020, is tiny at 815 total acres, with approximately 100 acres under vine. (Washington has 35,000 acres planted.) It is an important growing region for a number of prominent wineries. However, it is nowhere near as significant for the state in terms of volume or reputation as Red Mountain.

Smoke blew across the southern section of Red Mountain on the afternoon of Sept. 25, heavily influenced by strong winds. The smoke went through a gap between the base of Red Mountain and Goose Hill, toward West Richland.

Edwards, who has approximately 100 acres left to harvest, says that, to date, winemaker concern about the smoke has been mixed. “We’re picking Grenache from Candy Mountain on (Sept. 30),” he says, “I talked to the winemaker, and he’s not worried about it.” Others, however, have rejected fruit, some even prior to the Second Street Fire due to previous smoke events.

“The ones that are rejecting my fruit, some of them are just sick about it,” Edwards says. “They want the fruit, but they don’t want to take the chance (that the grapes are smoke impacted).”

Chris Upchurch is proprietor and head winemaker at Upchurch Vineyard, which has an estate vineyard on the southern section of Red Mountain. The fire came perilously close, but the winery had already picked almost all of its fruit.

“I think we dodged a bullet,” Upchurch says. “(The fire) went right up to our vineyard, but we only had one block that wasn’t already in.”

Upchurch was on Red Mountain when the fire began. “The fire started off in a very small area, but the wind just blew it everywhere,” he says. “It was pretty scary, but we feel very fortunate.”

Kiona Vineyards is one of the largest growers on Red Mountain and has a centrally located winery. General manager JJ Williams says the family’s winery and vineyards were not impacted.

“I wouldn’t presume to make any judgment on what was going on at someone else’s spot, but I can say, at our spot, all good,” Williams says. He was at the winery when the fire started.

“I got a message from our tasting room manager that the internet was down, so I look out the window, and there’s smoke to the south,” Williams says. “It was blowing almost exactly on the directional compass from the west to the east, up the valley.”

Even though the fire was physically close, the wind made it seem as if it weren’t. Williams took periodic pictures of a blue sky vineyard to show wineries concerned about smoke impact.

“The way that the smoke was going, at least from where we were, that fire could have been 100 miles away,” Williams says. “That’s not to downplay the impacts or the scariness to everyone south of (State Route) 224. They had a much worse day than we did.”

In the Goose Gap appellation, Goose Ridge Estate Winery head winemaker Andrew Wilson was also at the winery when the fire started. He received a phone alert.

“I went out and looked, and I actually didn’t really see anything,” Wilson says. “Then, I went out about half an hour later, and I was shocked because the sky was full of smoke. With all the wind we had that day, it seemed like the fire was just exploding.”

Wilson drove out to the edge of Goose Ridge’s vineyard. The wind was blowing the smoke away from it.

“I stayed out there for a few hours, just seeing if the wind was going to shift or anything,” Wilson says. “We got really fortunate.”

Goose Ridge began picking red grapes Sept. 28, a little over two days after the fire started. The winery still has approximately 60% of its fruit hanging. Wilson knows things could have gone much differently.

“If the wind was just slightly different, it would have ripped through our vineyards and blown up over that hill,” he says. “It was about as close as it could get to us.”