Oregon's Scott Paul wine producer has had a lucky escape after a fire at its winery almost ruined its entire stock of 2013 vintage wines.
All 2,500 cases-worth of Scott Paul‘s 2013 vintage Pinot Noir wine was sitting in barrels in the cellar when the fire started at the weekend in the fermentation cellar of the winery, located in Carlton.
Fortunately for the owners, firefighters arrived quickly to tackle the blaze, although the first crews had to call in reinforcements to bring the fire under control. Eyewitnesses reported thick smoke pouring out of the winery building.
‘Had the fire crews not arrived when they did, we could have lost the whole thing,’ said Scott Wright, co-proprietor of the winery and a former managing director at Domaine Drouhin Oregon.
‘We are hugely relieved,’ he told Decanter.com.
‘The fire was confined to one interior wall in the fermentation room, which is empty at this time of year,’ said Wright. ‘A portion of the wall will need to be rebuilt, and there’s a big clean-up job ahead, but we actually suffered very little damage.
‘The fire department says it was an electrical fire, but no one can pinpoint exactly how or why it started.’
Scott Paul winery owns a 4-hectare vineyard in the Chehalem Mountains American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Oregon, and also rents vines in the Dundee Hills, McMinnville and Ribbon Ridge AVAs.
Written by Chris Mercer
