Tracey Hawkins' v Hawkins' oice shook with some mix of emotion, exhaustion, and awe. She described what she saw around her yesterday afternoon, as she and her husband Mitch put out spot fires in their vineyard.

"What I see is a beautiful vineyard that we harvested the day before the fire broke out," Hawkins said from Hawk and Horse Vineyard, a ranch and vineyard estate in Lake County, California."The fruit is beautiful but everything else around me is black. There's the sound of cracking trees over there, and a helicopter flying overhead. Three of our horses are standing in a black pasture. But the vines are fine. They're an oasis of green. If you didn't believe in God before, you will now."[/entity]

The contrast is striking, between the blackened-out ranch land behind it, and the lush green "oasis"... [+] of vines at Hawk and Horse Vineyards in Lake County. Photo Credit: Tracey Hawkins

Hawk and Horse Vineyard lies in the path of what's called the Valley Fire, a series of a dozen large wildfires that began in Lake County, has burned across 62,000 acres, displaced 13,000 people, and engaged some 11,000 firefighters. On Sunday, California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in Lake County and adjacent Napa County.

With homes and businesses reduced to ash, at least one person dead, and hundreds of others evacuated with little more than a few moments' notice, the quality or state of this year's grape harvest isn't the primary concern.

But conversations with winemakers and growers offer an access point, so to speak, to what's happening there on the ground.

Sara Fowler, winemaker at Peju Province Winery, for example, was waiting for news yesterday afternoon about whether a grower vineyard (a source of their fruit) has been lost to the fire. The fire was also getting closer and closer, she said, to Peju's own Persephone Vineyard in Pope Valley, one of the winery's largest vineyards and the source of a range of their fruit, from Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah to Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

Fowler is also mindful of when her crews will be able to access the vineyards again in order to continue the harvest. "We're getting updates every hour, and we just heard that they're closing additional roads," she said. "This fire is dangerous because it's erratic. Even if the crews could get in, we wouldn't send them until it's completely safe."

The vineyards at Hawk and Horse Vineyard were saved partly because staff and neighbors carved firebreaks around it. Miguel Angel Chavez, who has worked with Hawk and Horse for more than 14 years, used heavy farm equipment to carve the breaks. Hawkins said Chavez is the bravest and most loyal man they know, and his work helped to preserve the family's second vineyard that, despite the fire, may still be harvested today as planned.

Miguel Angel Chavez, who has worked for Hawk and Horse Vineyard for more than 14 years, used heavy... [+] equipment to carve this firebreak to protect the lines. Photo Credit: Tracey Hawkins

Matt Lamborn of Lamborn Family Vineyards, located on Napa's Howell Mountain overlooking Pope Valley, has also seen his share of wildfires.

"We've been witness to at least three wildfires that we can watch from this property, and we've grown accustomed to how big they can get," he said on Monday afternoon. "I look out the window now and I see a small amount of smoke, but it doesn't look too significant. When the Valley Fire first started, it was moving at such a fast rate that it would have been easy to see it come into Napa Valley, but it's still on the outskirts."

Lamborn pointed out that vineyards actually serve as a good buffer to fires, because there isn't the "ladder effect" that gives it momentum. Normally grasses start burning, then small shrubs, then larger shrubs, then trees, but those conditions don't exist in vineyards.

Whether it's the lack of a ladder effect, or firebreaks as at Hawk and Horse Vineyard, growers and winemakers are starting to see the slow down of the Valley Fire.

"The blazing part of the fire here in Lake County is mostly done," Hawkins said. "But there are lot of hot spots still smoldering that can reignite something, and there are embers and ash falling to the ground around us. It's very dramatic and tragic, and also very emotional."

Cathy Huyghe is the author of Hungry for Wine (September 30 release). Find her online on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.