PASO ROBLES, Calif. – After almost 2 feet of rain in the past two weeks, general manager and partner of Tablas Creek Winery Jason Haas wrote, “Let’s keep it coming.” He said this despite intense rain and overflowing creeks closing the winery on Monday and Tuesday.
A series of atmospheric river storms have pummeled California with heavy rain and strong winds, flooding parts of California and even some wineries.
The amazing video shows water in sheets rushing off the saturated ground into Tablas Creek. The water level was so high that the creek ran a foot or two over the road to the winery’s entrance. Strong winds also blew down trees and branches, and mudslides all but covered the road that led to the winery.
At the end of the video, the canyon walls lining the roadway are just bare dirt. All the vegetation flowed into the road along with rocks and inches of soil. But Haas is happy.
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“After consecutive drought-reduced crops, I’m hoping for a historically wet winter,” wrote Haas in the Tablas Creek blog. “Something that will replenish our aquifers and reservoirs, delay bud break to a more normal time frame and set us up for a couple of years.”
He says that irrigation ponds are full, and the soil anchoring his grapes is saturated and filtering the water for storage in deeper levels. Nearby reservoirs and lakes are filling up but still are only at 13% and 38% of their capacity. The past three years were plagued with drought.
“Las Tablas Creek is flowing for the first time since early 2019,” Haas wrote.
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“The impacts to this point have been essentially all positive for us. We’ve already surpassed our rainfall for the winters of 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22,” Haas continued. “With the intense rain, we received nearly 6” in 24 hours, and the saturated soils, there have been issues with flooding, road closures and mudslides. At Tablas Creek, the vineyard and cellar have held up well.”
The vineyard in hilly Paso Robles in central California is well suited for these heavy rainfall events, he claims. Water runs down hills into rivers and spillways, feeding lakes in the valleys.
“Our calcareous soils are exceptionally porous, which means that they transport massive volumes of water from the surface to deeper layers before they reach saturation,” said Haas. “By the time they do saturate, the winter grasses tend to be well-enough established that erosion is minimal.”
Some of the few that do take issue with Haas’ “bring it on” attitude are the grazing sheep. The winery can’t have the hooves compacting the soil, which happens during very wet weather.
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The Tablas Creek Winery already saw double the amount of rain they usually see by this time of year. Their water year runs from July to June. Thanks to the late-month storm, December 2022 had three times the average rainfall. That is shy of their wettest December in Haas’ 20-plus years at the property.
As of January 5, the hills saw almost an entire month’s worth of rain to start 2023.
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This week’s atmospheric river pushed the annual rainfall to 26 inches.
But they still have half a year to go, and rain is minimal for the area from April to October. So even though the vines already enjoyed more rain than the 24.98″ they see in an average year, the rain needs to keep coming.
“All rain at this time of year is good, but we need it to be maintained through springtime,” said Matilda Scott, winemaker for Napa Valley’s Almacerro.
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Tablas Creek Winery was not yet sure when the road would be drivable again, which would allow them to reopen the tasting room.
FOX Weather will update the story when we receive an official comment from the winery.