Wine lovers can rest easy. “Massive winter storms made a mess in California’s wine country, but the rains weren’t expected to wash out the region’s valuable grape crop,” reports the Associated Press.

There was plenty of mud and debris but the vines are dormant for the winter. More importantly, the 2005 harvest is already in.

Industry spokesmen say the vines under water will not have any problems. The floods have also been something of a lottery. Some growers have had their soil eroded and others have newly fertile vineyards after the flood.

In recent years, the appeal of growing grapes and living in wine country has boosted the grape harvest in California and other wine-growing areas of the world. So it’s all good news for wine drinkers.