Napa Valley's Atlas Peak AVA rebuilds, rebounds

Living and working on the AVA’s Kitoko Vineyard, Langner owns the brand Hesperian Wines and has been rebuilding his property since 2017.

“When I first came up three weeks after the fire, it looked like half of the vineyard was gone because it singed the leaves,” he said. “When we were able to come up more frequently and we cut into the vine, and we saw it was still green and healthy … For me, that was the most important thing.”

While most of Hesperian’s estate vines were okay, the winery and Langner’s home burned down. Now, his new home is completed — and built of metal and other supposedly fireproof materials — and Hesperian will be digging into the mountain next spring to build the wine cave.

“Now I think, do I need to do this? Should I invest in this thing that might get destroyed?” he said. “Even if the contractor company says they can do this and that to make it fireproof, I just myself, psychologically, cannot handle it … everything will be underground, and we will put in some skylights so they won’t go bananas.”