Image zoom Credit: Jillian Mitchel For Lindsay Hoopes, second-generation owner of the family-run Hoopes Vineyard in Napa Valley, California, necessity was, without question, the mother of invention. Taking the reins from her father, Spencer Hoopes, in 2012 allowed her to put her own fingerprint on the business of grape growing and wine production. Then, in 2017, and again in 2020, the Napa wildfires ravaged the vines and scorched the grapes. Like other vineyards in the world-famous area, Hoopes Vineyard proved vulnerable to the whims of nature. When the 2017 fires hit in the middle of the harvesting season, Hoopes' team got the grapes off the vines as quickly as they could, not yet sure what impact the smoke would have on the crop. "Lo and behold, in December 2018, we noticed that it was showing signs of smoke taint," Hoopes recalls. "It was a difficult thing to test for. What seemed fine at first became an ashtray, with light levels of ash."