My husband’s parents live on the northeast edge of the town of Sonoma, Calif., at the end of a road that leads up a hill into Bartholomew Park Winery. It is beautiful country, shaded by fragrant eucalyptus trees and crisscrossed with hiking trails. Last week, the Northern California wildfires, fueled by wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour, set their street ablaze.

Their house, and the winery, survived. Fire crews worked day and night to prevent the inferno from racing down ridgelines to downtown Sonoma. Though some buildings burned, firefighters were able to save both Bartholomew Park and the adjacent Buena Vista Winery, the oldest commercial winery in the state, established in 1857.

Fire is a fickle thing. As I drove across Napa and Sonoma counties last week, I saw different versions of the same here-but-not-there diptych: a burned-out husk of a home or car, and, just next door, an expanse of untouched vineyards. Much was wind-dependent. Dozens of wineries sustained damage across Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino counties; some, like Signorello Estate, off the Silverado Trail in Napa, and Paradise Ridge Winery, in Sonoma County’s Santa Rosa, were completely destroyed. Their owners have vowed to rebuild.