CDF now reports 65% containment. The damage has now passed the 7,000 acre mark and the costs have risen to just under $10m. A fifth injury has been reported.

The good news is that the evacuation order for Bonny Doon has been temporarily lifted and residents are being allowed to return, though it remains in place for Swanton.

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The CDF is now reporting 50% containment on the Lockheed fire, with almost 7,000 acres destroyed. The weather conditions have improved, but it may be another week before the fire is fully contained. Estimated cost has exceeded $6 million.

Four firefighters have been reported as injured, but thankfully there have been no fatalities and no reports of houses being damaged. Linda McHenry reported that the fire is between 1 and 2 miles away from the vineyard; firefighters are concentrating their efforts to defend inhabited areas, and favourable winds are helping.

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The fire department is reporting over 5,000 acres destroyed, with 15% containment.
Update: The figures have now been revised to 6800 acres, 30% containment.

There's a map showing the fire's perimeter created by the Santa Cruz Sentinel. It shows the perimeter as less than a mile from the McHenry Vineyard. Firefighters are working to protect the villages of Bonny Doon and Swanton; although evacuation orders are in place, many Bonny Doon residents are staying and trying to defend their properties.

Costs have risen to an estimated $2.6m and there are now over 1500 personnel on the scene. Still no injuries reported, but smoke and ash is reported up to 50 miles away, and the area in the south bay smells of smoke today. The cause of the fire is still unconfirmed.

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Yes, it's fire season again. The Lockheed Fire is burning close to Bonny Doon, around 3 miles from last year's Martin fire. So far over 4,000 acres have been destroyed and a couple of buildings, but no homes yet. Around 2,000 people have been evacuate. There are news reports on the web sites of local TV stations such as KTVU and there's more information on the CDF web site and on the CalFire blog. It doesn't look like any wineries or vineyards are in the area; the closest appears to be McHenry, which lies to the south.

Update from Ryan Beauregard, in Bonny Doon: The winds have just picked up, and it is all blowing right towards me and Bacchus at the lost weekend, we will be leaving shortly... Helicopters are circling, fire bombers are going by. It is very surreal. At a moments notice, me and Bacchus can be told to leave. Then, we can only hope that the sprinklers on the roof can do something to help. Or, the 20,000 gallons of stored water can come in handy for the firemen. Even though I have put our roughly 10,000 gallons of water through the seven sprinklers, I still know it will do nothing to help. As of now, we will be closed for an estimated four days.

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There are two internet resources that every wine lover ought to know about.

Wine Searcher is a database of retailers from around the world. Their spiders download the latest price lists from every retailer, allowing you to quickly search for wines by any criteria. The basic service is free, and is supported by participating retailers; a $30 "pro" subscription gives you access to the entire database; depending on your budget and shopping habits it can easily pay for itself the first time you use it.

Cellar Tracker is a database of wines. It allows you to keep track of your wine collection, including purchases and consumption, view tasting notes from other users (the database just passed the 1,000,000 tasting notes mark) and lots more besides. Although there are other alternatives, it has become the dominant player. The service is free; a voluntary donation unlocks some additional features. The main criticism of Cellar Tracker is in its user interface; it's not very "Web 2.0" if you'll forgive the horrible buzzword, but this is due to be addressed in an update planned for later in the year. Another thing that is promised is a web API, which really could be interesting.

One of the first significant players to recognise the value of Cellar Tracker was Stephen Tanzer. He allows Cellar Tracker to publish the scores for the wines he reviews; furthermore his subscribers also see the full reviews.

As yet the two other main wine critics (in the US at least) - Wine Spectator and The Wine Advocate - aren't integrated with Cellar Tracker. They each have their reasons; whether I agree with those reasons is irrelevant, but I for one have vowed not to subscribe to their online services until I can access them via Cellar Tracker, so they have lost at least one sale as a result.

Now one of the latest ideas to hit the internet is Vinfolio Marketplace. This is a reverse auction service, whereby users who have wines that they are willing to sell can list them and field offers from interested customers. There have been plenty of sites that allowed users to sell or trade their wines; many such as WineBid or Brentwood act as licenced brokers and charge significant commissions to both buyers and sellers; Wine Commune offers lower commissions but operates in a legal grey area where neither the buyer or seller might have a licence to sell or ship alcohol.

Despite the fact that Vinfolio offers a cellar tracking service, they quickly teamed up with Cellar Tracker to allow users to easily list wines in Cellar Tracker in the Marketplace. They are also negotiating with Wine Searcher on the best way to list wines offered for sale on the site; this is complicated because the wines in the market place are only 'available' - it's up to the buyer to negotiate a satisfactory price. But the point is that they are working together to resolve this.

What I'd like to see is a single portal that combines everything. From one site you could see your cellar contents, reviews from all the critics to which you subscribe, both professional and amateur, current retail prices and recent auction prices, winery details such as that provided by Wine Questers or the ill-fated Appellation America.

As I mentioned earlier, Cellar Tracker is taking about publishing an API. This would allow people to write tools that work with it, in the way that people have written applications that work with Google, Facebook or Twitter. At which point Cellar Tracker may become the definitive online encyclopaedia of wine. It will be interesting to see how long the critics feel they can can ignore that.

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I recently became curious as to just how many acres of vineyards there are in the Santa Cruz Mountains and Santa Clara Valley AVAs; surprisingly it's not an easy question to answer. Mapping county figures to the AVAs is tricky, as the AVAs cross county lines. According to the official figures from the National Agricultural Statistics Service there are just 377 acres of vines in Santa Cruz County, with 358 producing fruit in 2008. Similarly in Santa Clara County there are 1462 acres planted, with 1432 in production.

There are approximately 300 acres of vineyard in the Santa Clara AVA which lie inside the San Benito County border, and there is probably a similar amount of vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA that lie within Santa Clara or San Mateo Counties. So at a rough estimate, there are probably around 700 acres of vines in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA and at least twice that in the Santa Clara Valley AVA.

There are few large vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains; the rugged terrain isn't easily farmed. Anything over 20 acres is considered to be extensive. The largest, and most famous, is Ridge's Monte Bello Vineyard. This is in fact a number of smaller vineyards located at different elevations, giving a total of 108 acres. Other well known vineyards include Mount Eden and the Regan Vineyard owned by Bargetto, both of which are over 40 acres.

In Santa Clara Valley, most of the acreage is concentrated in a few large vineyards, several of which are located along Highway 152 in the San Ysidro District and Pacheco Pass AVAs. San Ysidro District lies to the east of Gilroy on Highway 152. While the AVA may be small at just 2,340 acres, it is home to two of the largest vineyards in the area. Mistral Vineyard and San Ysidro Vineyard sit side by side to the north of Highway 152.

Mistral is slightly the larger of the two, with 260 acres planted from a total of 375. It is understood to contain mainly Chardonnay and Merlot which is sold to large producers, though there is a small amount of the port grapes Touriga Nacional, Tinta Cao and Tinta Madeira. Until its sale in 2007 the vineyard was owned by Millbrook Wine of New York, through their Pebble Ridge Vineyards subsidiary. (I have yet to determine who the new owners are.) Millbrook also own the highly regarded Williams Selyem winery in Sonoma, who have produced a port-style wine from the vineyard. The San Ysidro Vineyard has around 250 acres planted. A little over half is Pinot Noir with the remainder being Chardonnay and a small amount of Merlot. It is owned by the San Ysidro Corporation, the parent company of United California Citrus.

Further along, just before the 152 meets the 156 is the Dunne Ranch Vineyard, the largest in the AVA. As the road rises towards Pacheco Pass the vineyards are to the right, in the valley below. This 1000 acre ranch is owned by the Blackburn family, who also own the Pietra Santa winery in nearby Cienega Valley, but if you have $20M to spend it's understood to be for sale. Pietra Santa use only a fraction of the fruit; the majority is sold. The vineyard has around 300 acres of Chardonnay, 66 acres of Gewurztraminer and 10 acres of Pinot Gris; this alone makes Chardonnay the most planted variety in the AVA, and also makes Gewurztraminer the second most planted white variety. The western portion of the vineyard lies within the Pacheco Pass AVA. Further still, and also within the Pacheco Pass AVA, lies the San Felipe Vineyard; it covers some 122 acres and is evenly divided into Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It is also owned by the San Ysidro Corporation.

Between them, these four vineyards account for over 1,000 acres of vines, yet their names rarely appear on any labels. It's understood that much of the Chardonnay goes to large producers such as Kendall Jackson, Au Bon Climat and Beringer; the owners don't like to talk about who their clients are. Some fruit is used by local producers; Storrs, Picchetti and Cronin have all produced Merlot from San Ysidro, and Calera use Chardonnay from the San Ysidro and San Felipe vineyards.

I would be interested in any additional information about any of these vineyards; if you can help please contact me.

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Cast your mind back to last May, and the final assemblage tasting at Ridge. This is one of my favourite events of the year, as it's a great opportunity to try some older vintages of Monte Bello.

This year they poured three vintages; the 1995, 1997 and 1999. The latter vintage in particular did not show at all as expected, as I wrote at the time. Following some discussion with Ridge's Tasting Room Manager Christopher Watkins, Wes Barton and I were invited back to reassess the 1999.

Ridge isn't open on weekdays except by appointment and for certain special events. One of these events, for wine club members, takes place on the first Friday of every month, so we arranged to turn up early and combine the two events. We were joined by Richard Jennings, a fellow local wine enthusiast whose palate Wes and I greatly respect.

We were fortunate that there had been a trade visitor earlier in the day, so we got to start with a couple of wines that had been opened for them.

2006 Monte Bello Chardonnay
This will be released on September 1st. List price is $60, but it will be available for $50 on the first weekend.
Nose of white flowers, lemon zest, vanilla and wet stone. Lovely flavours of creamy vanilla, lemon, white peach and a little chalk. The oak was showing a little harshly on the long finish. Definitely needs some cellar time to truly shine. 93

2006 Monte Bello
A powerful nose of smoke, blackberry, mint and slate jumps out of the glass. There is plenty of sweet brambly fruit, hints of smoke and mint and a very long, dry mineral finish. Wes had brought some of his home-made Elderberry jam because he's been noticing elderberry notes on recent vintages of Monte Bello; he was right, there was definitely some elder notes. As you'd expect it has great structure and will cellar well, though it would be good with steak tonight. With time it opened up further. Should be a classic Monte Bello. $140 94+

1999 Monte Bello
Okay, down to the reason we are here. Right from the start it was clear that this was very different from the wine we tasted last May. The nose shows similar characteristics to the 2006 - lots of brambles, mint and smoke - and more maturity as you would expect, but nothing like last time, no sign of oxidation at all.
Good brambly fruit, smoked meat and coriander seed, with lots of structure. The finish was not as long as the 2006 Monte Bello. Still got plenty of life. 92

We then joined the Jimsomare tasting, and switched back to a white

2005 Home Ranch Chardonnay
Home Ranch is a designation that Ridge uses when it has lots that didn't make the cut for the Monte Bello but they don't want to blend it into the Santa Cruz. As a result, Home Ranch wines aren't made every year.
There was more evident oak influence than on the 2006 Monte Bello. Lots of lemon & vanilla and some walnut. I'd have pegged this for a Varner. Very fruity; nice balance, just a hint of sherry on the finish. A few bottles are still available at $45. 90

Jimsomare Ranch is a 500 acre property lower down on Monte Bello Road. Ridge has been sourcing fruit there for around 40 years and manages the estate. It has 5 acres of Zinfandel vines that are over 100 years old, and an additional block planted in 1996. The climate in the Santa Cruz Mountains is cool for Zinfandel, so you don't get the over-ripe jammy characteristics that (for me at least) mar many Zinfandels.

2007 Jimsomare Zinfandel, Santa Cruz Mountains
Nose was fruity but seemed atypical for a Zinfandel. Layers of deep, heavy fruit; blackberry, smoke and "Red Vines", with a longish finish. It triggered a memory of whinberry pie (a small English bilberry). $32 93

1997 Jimsomare Zinfandel, Santa Cruz Mountains
Showing a more traditional Zin profile; a tart raspberry/cranberry nose, lots of smooth raspberry fruit and a good, long and balanced finish. Hard to believe that it's 12 years old, it seems so lively. Delicious. 94

1988 Jimsomare Zinfandel, Late Picked, Santa Cruz Mountains
Ridge uses the 'late picked' designation to indicate that the sugar levels were higher than usual at harvest. There may be a little residual sugar, but it's not a 'dessert' wine.
This had a really strange nose; very hard to describe, there's PlayDoh, grass and cigarettes. It's surprisingly tart, dry and tannic despite the touch (0.11%) of residual sugar, but there's not much fruit remaining. An interesting experience nonetheless.

Update: Richard has posted his notes on CellarTracker.

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Morgan Hill Cellars was founded in 1913, with 80 acres of vines. The property was purchased by John and Eda Pedrizzetti in 1945 and with the help of of Mike Bo of the San Martin Winery, Pedrizzetti Winery began to grow. When John and Eda retired their son Ed and his new wife Phyllis took over and in 1968 they opened a tasting room off Burnett Avenue. A particularly heavy frost in the winter of 1979 damaged the vineyards so badly that the winery decided to stop farming, sell off the vineyards and purchase grapes from other growers.

At its peak the winery produced 50,000 cases. However a catastrophic fire in 1996 put an end to that. The family rebuilt the winery at a cost in excess of $2 million and focused primarily on weddings and other events. Wine production was slashed to around 2,000 cases, much of which is fruit wines. The La Fenice range of wines represents the "phoenix that rose from the ashes". In 2006 the family sold the winery and retired. The new owner is re-branding the winery as Morgan Hill Cellars.

The 2004 La Fenice Cabernet Sauvignon was made by the previous owners. It opens with a nose of barnyard (brett?) and green pepper. On the palate it's thin, green and sour, with very little fruit evident. I had one glass; the sink drank the rest. Whatever the new proprietors do going forward it has to be an improvement on this. No score.

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Guglielmo is a third generation family winery located in Morgan Hill. Emilio Guglielmo planted this Petite Sirah immediately after prohibition. The winery began by making private label wines for restaurants and finally launched their own label in the late 1960s.

This opens up with a nose of fragrant oak and a little violets. On the palate there's plenty of tannin and acidity, with notes of black coffee, toast and pepper, but not much in the way of fruit. The alcohol is kept nicely in check at 12.8% and at $18 it's not all that expensive. 86

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Rapazzini winery sits alongside the 101 in Gilroy. You can't miss signs featuring a cartoon grape stomper and proclaiming "Home of the world famous garlic wine". The winery was founded by the Rapazzini brothers in 1962; they later opened the Garlic Shoppe next door. In 2000 Jon retired and sold the businesses to Alex and Charles Larson.

The name Symphony rung a bell, but at first I couldn't recall why. A little research showed that it's a cross between Muscat of Alexandria and Grenache Gris, created at UC Davis in the 1940s but not launched commercially until the early 1980s. It's supposed to resemble Muscat, with a more perfumed nose and vibrant citrus flavours.

This may be true, but in my experience floral nose and vibrant fruit tend to be casualties of extended ageing, and this is what has happened here. The wine reminds me of an older Sauvignon Blanc; while it has citrus and butterscotch notes, the nose is muted and any vibrancy has long gone. 80

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