How Sonoma and Napa businesses are recovering after fires

**Magical Realist** · (This post was last modified: Oct 5, 2018 06:58 PM by Magical Realist.)

https://sf.eater.com/2018/10/4/17933512/...nniversary

"It’s been one year since multiple fires ravaged California wine country, disrupting harvest and leaving devastation in its wake. But while the road to recovery is long and steep, these Napa and Sonoma businesses have climbed out of the ashes and taken the first major steps towards rebuilding. One year later, here are some updates on how the region is recovering:"

**C C** · Oct 6, 2018 04:50 AM

Quote:Signorello Estate, a hilltop winery that completely lost its tasting room [...] Signorello has set up an interim tasting room inside a chic, 60-by-12-foot trailer [...] Across the valley [...] Mayacamas Vineyards, also lost their tasting room [...] Mayacamas announced last week that they will be opening a tasting room in downtown Napa this fall [...]

Yep, fer sure got to get those tasting rooms back up to accommodate their own potential version of flyby freeloaders.

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**Secular Sanity** · Oct 7, 2018 05:19 AM

[quote='C C' pid='23856' dateline='1538797810']

Quote:Yep, fer sure got to get those tasting rooms back up to accommodate their own potential version of flyby freeloaders.

Freeloaders? Not anymore. In this region the average cost of tasting is twenty bucks for just three teensy weensy little pours. Some places charge even more.

**C C** · Oct 7, 2018 08:08 AM

(Oct 7, 2018 05:19 AM)Secular Sanity Wrote: Freeloaders? Not anymore. In this region the average cost of tasting is twenty bucks for just three teensy weensy little pours. Some places charge even more.

That once already endangered "no-fee" list for Napa is probably completely belly-up by now. Back in 2016, only a handful like Buehler Vineyards, Vincent Arroyo Winery, Heitz Wine Cellars, & Sutter Home Winery were named as still offering some freebie samplings. Their establishments cautioned as off the beaten track and possibly congested with guest-appointments for tours and tasting room visits. (Sutter's has a phone number for setting a date at their tasting room, but no upfront "Deadbeats and impoverished lounge lizards need not bother" posted underneath it yet.)

Though a laughably insignificant percentage of its total number of wineries, Sonoma County was better blessed with nine plus lingering dinosaurs listed in March of 2018. But more of those may have tanked the practice since then or dropped what were only temporary, "no-fee" promotional strategies.

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