Portuguese Fires

[Roy Hersh]

There were 188 different fires blazing that were reported on the mainland on Monday. One of my friends lost her vineyards and home yesterday, in the Dao region.

In Funchal and other parts of Madeira, things are tense too. Some horrible fires and strong winds there that are even resulting in hospitals being evacuated.

Say a prayer for our Portuguese friends!

[Eric Ifune]

Oh my Lord! Vineyards are usually pretty resistant to wild fires. It must've been very intense.

[Andy Velebil]

Yikes, that's horrible. I saw a post by Chris Blandy that said he was sleeping at their place (I assume lodge) in Funchal as it was 2 blocks away and still going strong.

[Bert VD]

loosing your house like that must be horrible! i hope no one got hurt

[Moses Botbol]

Fox News TV mentioned the fires the other night.

[Glenn E.]

I saw something about the Funchal fires on Facebook... terrible!

[Roy Hersh]

From Chris Blandy this a.m.:

"Things are calmer now. Fire in the Centre of Funchal is out. Couple of fires around the island but wind and temperature have both come down.
Things are back to normal!"


But still terrible on the mainland.

[Roy Hersh]

Saw this too:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37030217?

[Steve Pollack]

Wow, very sorry to hear. Hope all are safe.

[Roy Hersh]

My friend lost her own home and winery in the Dao region but this report is from yesterday and speak more to the Douro and Madeira too:

A state of emergency has been declared in the Porto region since Sunday night (7 August).

Five hundred firefighters have been deployed near Porto, tackling the fires, which were caused by very high temperatures and strong winds in the area.

Adrian Bridge, managing director of Taylor’s Port, told Decanter.com ‘The fires are throughout the region [of Porto] but not impacting the vineyards, which are to the East of the main fires.’

‘In the city it is only the smoke that is impacting us. Sadly some people have lost their houses and businesses, and our thoughts are with them.’

Paul Symington, of Symington Family Estates, has been in the Douro and is ‘very relieved to say that so far there have been no serious fires here, although we can, at times, see large plumes of smoke from forest fires to the south and to the west.’

‘It has been very hot here, with temperatures of 36 degrees and more and no rain since June, so the scrubland and woods that surround our vineyards are tinder dry.’

‘We are concerned about the high risk of fires and hope that we do not have any outbreaks over the coming weeks before the harvest.’




Madeira fire
The fires on the island of Madeira have been burning for two days.

Many buildings have been destroyed, including the five star Choupana Hills hotel and hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes.

However, Henriques & Henriques CEO Humberto Jardim said that both he, and the Madeira Institute, are not concerned so far about the fires as they are concentrated in Funchal and that there is no real worry about the vineyards for now.

[Andy Velebil]

You know there is a lot of fires when it showed up on Yahoo News. Porto area seems to have been hit pretty hard as well. The Douro itself seems to have escaped most so far. Lets hope they get a handle on them soon so no further loss of structures, or worse, happens.

[Bradley Bogdan]

Hopefully the smoke won't be an issue for the grapes. Especially after verasion, grapes can actually absorb smoke compounds. It's been an issue for California a couple times in the last decade, as it's a VERY assertive flavor, and there's not much you can do about it once it's there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U

[Edward J]

Hopefully the smoke won't be an issue for the grapes. Especially after verasion, grapes can actually absorb smoke compounds. It's been an issue for California a couple times in the last decade, as it's a VERY assertive flavor, and there's not much you can do about it once it's there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkz. U

It can be a serious problem. For a single smoke exposure event lasting thirty minutes, the most damage was done when this exposure was 7 to 10 days after veraison. For multiple smoke exposure events, the damage was additive and cumulative, completely degrading the quality of the grapes and resulting wine.