On Aug. 24, a 6.0 magnitude earthquake struck northern California and the aftershocks were felt around the world.

“What is going to happen to California’s wine industry and the price of wine?”

Initial headlines indicated a direct hit on Napa amidst harvest season and this started a chain reaction of panic. Even though harvest season begins in August for white grapes, the red grapes are usually picked mid-September. Some wineries suffered damage and some inventory was lost; the good news is the damage was light, and this earthquake will not have the effect everyone initially feared. According to the Napa Valley Vintners association, "weather throughout the growing season has been ideal and vintners are expecting yet another excellent vintage, the third year in a row in the region."

This provides an excellent opportunity to share an interesting fact about California’s wine industry. While Napa Valley is renowned as the wine capital, it earned that reputation from the quality — not necessarily the quantity — of wine produced. The Napa Valley Vintners acknowledge Napa is responsible for only 4 percent of California’s total wine production.

Our WINE TO TRY ties in well with current events. Michael and David Phillips are two brothers, whose family has farmed in the Lodi region of California since the 1850s, cultivating wine grapes for nearly a century. They opened Michael David Winery and decided to create an over-the-top Zinfandel from grapes of an old Lodi vineyard planted around the same time of San Francisco’s great earthquake of 1906. It made sense to Michael Phillips to relate this intense wine with the historic quake.

2012 Earthquake Zin

Peppery and spicy, with plenty of cherry and raspberry fruit interweaved with a dusty, loamy soil aroma. With over 15 percent alcohol and bold tannins, Michael David Winery claims, “this dark and voluminous wine will definitely leave your senses quivering.”