That August, the West Coast’s worst fire season in history began. More than eleven thousand bolts of lightning struck central and Northern California in the span of thirty-six hours, heralding the start of an orange-skied autumn in which flights were suspended, more than eight million acres burned across twelve states, and winemakers’ dreams of a perfect vintage went up in flames. “The lightning storm came over on the first day we were bringing Sauvignon Blanc in, and within a couple of hours there was smoke,” Egelhoff told me. “I was on the crush pad—we were unloading our first truck of fruit—and it was probably one of the most heartbreaking moments of my career.”journey-inline-newsletterinline-newsletter