Paradise Ridge Winery - ONE OF THE AFFECTED COMPANY

Family-owned Paradise Ridge Winery has been a fixture in California’s Sonoma County for more than two decades, hosting community events, wine tastings, and weddings on its grounds in the hills on the edge of the city of Santa Rosa.

A devastating conflagration driven by powerful winds, swept through Santa Rosa lead to tubbs fire. The fire began on Oct. 8, 2017, and by the early morning of Oct. 9, it had reached the winery’s 155-acre property. Paradise Ridge was ravaged: Six outbuildings, the combined tasting room and events center, and the winemaking building were all lost, along with three rental homes on the property. And the wines that had just been set aside after the harvest were gone.

But like many smaller businesses, Paradise Ridge found itself underinsured for the kinds of catastrophic losses that a wildfire can inflict. The total payout for its buildings, Byck-Barwick says, will be $5.4 million. Rebuilding the tasting room and events center—the only business facility the family currently plans to replace—is expected to cost just above $5 million, she notes, and such costs do not include “architect and planning fees, tree removal, fences, restoring the electrical and water.”

Progress on the rebuilding will be slow, given the daunting size of the repair bill relative to the winery’s revenue. Paradise Ridge, which has a second tasting room in nearby Kenwood, saw total sales of around $3 million in 2016, the year prior to the fires. About half of that revenue came from its tasting rooms and wine club—out of that, $750,000 came from the tasting room in Santa Rosa, now out of commission.

Still, despite the destruction, Paradise Ridge has kept cash coming in the door. The winery’s staff returned to harvesting grapes about three days after the fire, and the business reopened after about 10 days. The Kenwood tasting room survived the fires and stayed open, and the business is stll selling small amounts of wine wholesale. Tastings have continued by appointment, while the sculpture garden is open on weekends. A $3.1 million business interruption insurance policy, Byck-Barwick says, should be “just enough to cover us until we are back up and running.”