One of the most frequent questions we get about our stainless steel wine barrels is, how high can they be safely stacked? The general answer, depending on gauge of steel and barrel design, is 4 to 6 high using standard barrel racks. But the recent earthquake in the Napa region reminds us that there are other factors that must be taken into consideration. The enduring images of the Napa earthquake will likely be the piles of barrels and racks from toppled barrel stacks. While most winery buildings made it through the earthquake with little to no damage, aside from the dramatic exception of Trefethen Family Vineyards’ historic winery building, several wineries suffered damage, lost wine and had staff spending precious time at the onset of harvest cleaning and reorganizing of barrel rooms. Despite the example of the 2003 San Simeon Earthquake, after which a forklift driver had to be rescued from beneath a pile of collapsed barrel stacks, most wineries throughout California still stack barrels up to six levels high with two-barrel racks laying on top of the barrels below. The setup provides for quick and relatively easy access to barrels and maximizes available space in a barrel room. But the big drawback of this stacking method became all too apparent to several wineries near the epicenter of the quake in the Carneros American Viticultural Area and as far into Napa Valley as the Oak Knoll AVA. Charles Chadwell of California Polytechnic University says that, "stacking six high is a bad idea just all the way around," based on shaker table studies he performed. Chadwell said, "barrels stacked four high with one of the specialized racks on the bottom could handle shaking similar to the recent major earthquake in California, and even stacks five high seemed to manage. At six high, I don’t condone that for any system." He added that seismic regulations have so far addressed ensuring the buildings and key infrastructure can withstand earthquakes, but there may be more interest in securing "heavy contents," which would include barrels. He said wineries may soon see a policy in place requiring them to have some type of seismic restraint system to help keep workers safe from toppling barrel racks. "Something that will come out of this is heavy contents and how it relates to life safety," he said. Chadwell said he’d also like to see winery "shark cages" or heavy-duty steel cages placed in easily accessible parts of the barrel room. If an earthquake hits a winery, or a forklift accident triggers a stack collapse, workers could run to the cage and be protected from falling barrels. "If anything goes wrong, at least they have a fighting chance to get into the cage," he said. "They may be stuck there for a while, but at least they’ll be alive."
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