Sonoma: 2021 New Releases
BY ANTONIO GALLONI |
January always means a stream of new releases from Sonoma and neighboring appellations. As we have done in the past, this year we present our Sonoma coverage in a series of installments.
First Things First…
Before we get into the wines, I think a few things are worth mentioning, especially given we are living through a moment in time in which the pace and shock of events can stretch the perception of time such that something that happened last month feels like it happened years ago.
Sonoma has been through a brutal period over these last few years. In 2017, the Tubbs Fire was shocking in its devastation. I had never seen anything like it, from residential neighborhoods that looked like they had been carpet bombed to rural properties that smelled like burn for many, many months after. Although locals are hesitant to talk about it much, the truth is that the hospitality industry, meaning hotels and restaurants, in wine country (including Napa) never fully recovered. Just two years later, the Kincade fire threatened communities once again, forcing evacuations and closing towns for a number of days.
Sadly, the worst was yet to come in 2020, when a series of wildfires caused an unprecedented amount of damage while the world grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many producers, including those Vinous readers seek out each and every year, will bottle little or no wine. Today, the fear is of a repeat event. “We will find a way to get past 2020,” a highly respected producer told me recently. “But if we have another year like that we might not make it.”
