Weekly Wine Online

Quick update from California:

Those of us in San Francisco woke up to quite a fog this morning, though a fog unlike our normal summer sea mist and instead a thick, yellow soup like one might envision in a desert on a scorching summer day. Except it wasn't hot. It was just yellow and soupy. Turns out the fires of California are getting quite close.

As you've probably heard, there are over 800 fires raging in California currently. The San Francisco Chronicle has a great website, www.sfgate.com, that is keeping up with all the flames in the region. But being a wine lover, I was especially concerned about my friends and the vines up in Napa, Sonoma, Monterey, and other nearby regions.

According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, the fires are still raging out of control in Napa, Solano & Mendocino counties. However, Mark Fisher of the wine blog, Uncorked, says things aren't as bad as they seem. I sent a few notes up to some friends in wine country, and they said things are okay so far, but that the air is "like pea soup," to quote a friend at Corison Vineyards. Luckily, they said, the vines won't be affected by the smoke. Friends at Spring Mountain Vineyard said they, too, were okay, but that it was hard to see the neighboring mountains.

One of the glories of California wine country is that the ground is so dry that vines are forced to dig deep into the earth for nutrients, resulting in robust wines. In fact, it usually only rains about 6 inches a summer up in Napa. This year, however, lets just hope the marine layer moves in quickly and brings some early rain and moisture with it because wine country, and all of California for that matter, sure could use it.

To learn more about the fires, visit www.sfgate.com, where they've published a helpful map.