(Wine-Searcher) - Despite the gloomy air, producers are pleased as the 2018 harvest kicks off.

 

Under a hazy sky, Northern California's wine harvest began Tuesday night, with sparkling wine producers Domaine Chandon, Mumm Napa and Gloria Ferrer all bringing home the first wine grapes of 2018.

Though the huge wildfires in nearby Mendocino and Lake Counties are unsettling, the sparkling winemakers seem confident that their wines will not be affected by smoke taint.

"It seems like most of that smoke is staying up high, other than maybe a couple of ashes on my car," Gloria Ferrer winemaker Steven Urberg told Wine-Searcher. "We're not seeing that ground-level smoke as we did with the Napa fires (in 2017). That's where we see the smoke taint, when the smoke is right there on the grapes."