How Wildfires Are Affecting the People Who Make Your Wine (Including Me)

When people say “working in wine must be so exciting” this is not the sort of excitement I hoped to experience

Image taken by author

The fires are surrounding the winery. We are evacuating but I don’t know if there is a route out of here.

It’s never the phone call you want at 3 am, but it was the phone call I received.

Last year, my husband interned at a winery in central Portugal. I tagged along for parts of it too. During my visits, I was cheerfully dubbed the “intern’s intern.” A cellar rat, helping out in the winery in between writing assignments that I scribbled in a copse, sitting on ancient stone benches and tables.

I had left the winery earlier that day to return to my Porto home. The sky burned orange — like sunset at 2 pm. A two-hour journey took four hours because many roads were closed as wildfires spread throughout the region. The bus took a convoluted route through central Portugal and the Douro Valley. I lost count of the fires I saw raging around the hills carpeted with vines.

I got home exhausted and smelling of smoke. I flopped on the bed and fell asleep.