We had plans in place for a visit to the vineyards of Chile in March of 2010 and then on February 27 of that year an 8.8 magnitude on the Richter scale earthquake struck, the sixth largest ever recorded on Earth. The town of Concepcion moved ten feet to the west, the teeming city of Santiago about one foot! Despite this, and some visit cancellations, we did not change travel plans.

Wherever we went, the damage was obvious with crumpled stainless steel tanks, broken barrels and fallen masonry. Over fourteen million cases of wine were destroyed. Despite this, the folks at Undurraga Winery were gracious hosts and even took us for a horse-drawn carriage ride through their vineyards.

We get an extensive range from Undurraga and probably our most successful one is their Aliwen Pinot Noir Reserva 2012. It is no easy task to make a good Pinot Noir for $13.40, but they do. The fruit is ripe with gentle aromas of spice and hints of violets on the nose. The overall impression is truly quite delightful.

An 8.8 quake has the power potential of 240 megatons of TNT and a 6 equals 15 kilotons of TNT, but this week even a 6 has quite rattled the Napa County area and also a bit of Sonoma. I must be on the mailing list for the Napa River Inn, where I stayed this year, as they have just informed me that they sustained damage but are open for business. I missed this one by a fair amount, but I have been concerned about my many friends and associates in this area that I know well.

Cuvaison, not far from San Francisco Bay, concentrates on fine Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, $39.10 and $31.35 respectively. They have contacted me to say that out of the 100 barrels that rolled off their racks, only two were broken. A barrel holds 300 bottles of wine.

Not far from Cuvaison the Robert Sinskey Winery tweeted “Bummer earthquake. Office a mess”. Without a doubt, this biodynamic operation makes one of our finest and most interesting whites. It is the 2012 Abraxas which blends Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Gewürztraminer and Riesling together for elegance, floral nectarine goodness, apples and spice. $47.45 and a real treat named for the God(ess) of 365 paradises.

I have an e-mail from Shafer, further north, in the heart of the Stags Leap AVA and it says “We’re all fine and we didn’t lose a single bottle. We are open today and do not anticipate any problems releasing our fall wines”. Even though our Shafer wines range in price from $64.70 (Chardonnay) to $273.45 (their 2009 Hillside Select Cabernet Sauvignon that rates 98/100 with Parker, 95-98/100 with Wine Spectator), all of their wines are on strict allocation as the World has created such a demand. I will go out on a limb and say that there is no finer producer overall.

It would have seemed to me that Schramsberg that sits on a mountainside at the northern tip of Napa Valley would have been spared, but an e-mail informs me that “We are fine, there was minor damage to some bottles in the caves”. This is a remarkable place with excavated tunnels that were dug deep into the mountain in the late 1800s and in them are many thousands of ageing Méthode Champenoise bottles, the benchmark bubblies for the US. We stock Brut, Blanc de Blanc, Rose and their top wine called J Shram that has bested the greatest names in Champagne in blind tastings.

In my last article I quoted a price of $64.10 for the St Emilion La Reverence 2010 and I offer my apologies as it is only $35.85 a bottle.

This column is a paid for advertorial for Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or 295-0176. Burrows Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton (Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available online at www.wineonline.bm.