Twenty-Year Anniversary of Loma Prieta Quake
Santa Cruz Mountain Winemakers Recount Events of October '89 Tremor
Oct 14, 2009
October 17, 2009 marks the 20-year anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Many Santa Cruz Mountains winemakers were wrapping up a busy day in the midst of harvest when the tremor hit at 5:04 p.m. The following excerpts are from stories researched by Denise Ward of the wine association and supplied to Suite101 with permission of the organization.
Val Ahlgren – Ahlgren Vineyard
“The World Series saved a lot of winemakers!” says Val Ahlgren. Val and husband Dexter were preparing to watch the ball game when the television suddenly fell and everything in the house that could break, did.
They were in the midst of the grape crush. Barrels filled with Chardonnay and Semillon rolled every which way and the wine poured out. Val recalls that the smell was fabulous.
Jeff Emery – Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard
The winery and vineyard were less than three miles from the epicenter as the crow flies.
Owner Ken Burnap was on vacation. Helper Luis Martinez started his work day early so that he could leave in time to watch the World Series, leaving Emery alone in the winery. The earthquake knocked him off of his feet. The ground was buckling and barrels fell from the wooden racks, but stayed surprisingly intact, although wine leaked out where the bungs had popped.
As he looked out over the summit, fires broke out. “It was a frightening scene,” he recalls.
Jerold O’Brien – Silver Mountain Vineyards
Following a run of 16-hour workdays, O’Brien was taking a late afternoon nap when he was suddenly flung off his bed. Checking the winery, he found everything broken and destroyed. Water tanks moved, vehicles relocated and all of the wine barrels fell from the racks and shattered. In less than 15 minutes, not a drop of wine was left in the barrels.
An aftershock followed, damaging the winery building roof which burst into flames. With the electricity out, water could not be pumped from the underground tanks and the building burned to the ground, causing the loss of three years of production. Firefighters arrived as the flames jumped to the roof of O’Brien’s home. It took helicopters several trips of dousing the structure to contain the blaze. Most of the house was saved and fortunately, 75% of the bottled wine was undamaged.
Correct Location of Loma Prieta Epicenter
Winemaker Jerold O’Brien commented that, “as the nation and the world watched the events unfolding on television, the assumption was that the epicenter was in San Francisco. It took a few days for people to learn about a little town called Aptos, the area surrounding the epicenter.”
Epicenter Cuvee Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Produced to Assist Earthquake Victims
Several affected Santa Cruz wineries joined together to each donate one barrel of the 1989 vintage Chardonnay to blend into a specially labeled wine, Epicenter Cuvee. The wine sold out quickly, so later, a larger offering of 1989 Pinot Noir was bottled. Labels featured the image of the actual seismograph, displaying the 6.9 Richter scale magnitude.
Sales of the wines netted $15,000, which was presented to The Greater Santa Cruz Community Foundation and the Santa Cruz Red Cross for ongoing relief efforts.
Related article by June Smith, Santa Cruz Wineries Remember 1989 Earthquake
Related article by Maureen K. Fleury, 1989 San Francisco Earthquake
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