(Wineandspiritsmagazine) - The fires of October 2017 were the most catastrophic in California history. In a state where wildfires extract an annual toll on homes, lives, and property public and private, that’s saying something. At last count, in the course of ten days, 17 coterminous conflagrations had incinerated 250,000 acres; 5,700 structures; and 42 lives—collectively the deadliest wildfire in the United States since the 1918 Cloquet Fire in northern Minnesota. One hundred thousand people were evacuated and 185 hospitalized across seven California counties. Early predictions of long-term economic impact exceeded $85 billion.