1989 Santa Cruz Quake Revisited
20 Years After the Loma Prieta Earthquake Struck Wine Country
Sep 22, 2009
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the “World Series Quake,” was a major earthquake that caused 63 deaths, 3,757 injuries, and an estimated $6-10 billion in property loss. It was the largest earthquake to occur on the San Andreas Fault since the "Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906." The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake had a magnitude of 6.9 with its epicenter near the Santa Cruz Mountain Winery in California's Santa Cruz mountains south of San Francisco.
Winemaker Interviews
Bargetto was the host winery for producing and bottling “Epicenter Cuvées” of Chardonay and Pinot Noir. These bottlings featured a label showing the seismograph printout of the quake. The effort generated $10,000 in proceeds for the Greater Santa Cruz County Community Foundation. Bargetto lost 3000 gallons of white wine when a tank door seal ruptured during the quake.
The Ahlgren Vineyard reported that everything not bolted down fell and everything that could break did! Barrels that had been filled with Chardonnay and Semillon had rolled every which way and wine was pouring out everywhere. Val Ahlgren recalled that the smell was “fabulous!"
Crescini Wines had barrels full of Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon in their winery. The quake knocked the barrels down and 45% of their wine was lost.
Santa Cruz Mountain Vineyard was located just 2 to 3 miles from the epicenter, as the crow flies. When the earthquake hit it knocked winemaker Jeff Emery right off of his feet. There was an incredible amount of movement and the ground was rolling and buckling. The barrels all fell from the wooden racks, but stayed surprisingly intact although wine was leaking from the barrels where the bungs had popped. 8 to 10 fires broke out surrounding the winery.
At Silver Mountain Vineyard everything was 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 twenty minutes later damaging the winery building roof, which subsequently burst into flames. With the electricity out, water could not be pumped from the underground tanks and the building burned to the ground. Even the concrete slab below cracked and buckled. Three years of production was lost.
Barry Jackson was in the cellar of Storrs Winery helping Steve Storrs transfer some wine. While resting, he leaned against a barrel as he felt the main shock hit. The winery turned into a chaotic scene. Jackson described the sound as if a “freight train was roaring through the building.” Then every piece of glassware was breaking and bottles shattering. As Jackson looked over at the case goods that were stacked on palettes about 7’-0” high they began to sway back and forth and back and forth, but somehow avoided collapsing. The most compelling aspect of the events unfolding, according to Jackson, was that newly filled barrels of Chardonnay, “began to bounce like the ping pong balls in a lottery cage!" Wine began shooting up out of the barrels toward the ceiling, like geysers, due to the gases forming from the fermentation process. Jackson noted that as he looked over, Steve seemed to be moving up and down, as if he were on a teeter-totter as the ground buckled beneath them. Afterward it became deathly quiet.
Interviews with winemakers conducted by Denise Ward for the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association.
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