Wildfire Wine 1: Why some wines taste like ash
It’s not just your imagination. Find out how wildfire smoke sneaks into the wine bottle.
This article almost didn’t happen. I was going to write about how wildfire smoke taints wine, updating what I knew from previous research with an interview. I looked up the contact information for a USDA scientist researching smoke exposure. Then I learned she had just been fired.
As you probably know by now, the U.S. administration has been firing lots of scientists from government agencies, claiming they are getting rid of workers and programs due to “fraud and waste”. In this case, California winemakers disagreed: Neither the smoke research program nor its scientists were dispensable. That’s what V. Sattui Winery president Tom Davies said in this report by CBS Bay Area.
California winemakers are powerful players in the U.S. food industry. After devastating wildfires in 2020 led to 3.7 billion dollar losses, according to Davies, winemakers rallied their representative in Congress to secure funding for smoke research. I don’t know if they made their voices heard again. What I do know is that the two California smoke researchers were hired back. My interview request, however, was denied.
Luckily, a non-government scientist working in this field was free to talk to the press me. And that’s why this month’s newsletters will be about wildfire smoke and wine, after all. Yay, or: cheers!
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Where there is smoke: Why are wildfires a problem for wine lovers?
You take a sip of wine. Lean back, relax. Twenty, thirty seconds later, it hits you. “You get a mouthful of cigarette smoke ashiness.” That’s how Elizabeth Tomasino describes the taste of wildfire wine.
The award-winning enologist at Oregon State University underlines that it takes a certain amount of smoke until its taste becomes obvious. For instance, it happened with wine made from grapes that were exposed to the West Coast wildfires of 2020.
Have you ever tasted wildfire smoke-affected wine? Will you try some? Let me know in the comments!
It turns out that people have different perceptions of smoky wine. Some feel appalled that scientists would even give them such a disgusting wine. Others only notice the taste when the wine was heavily affected by smoke.
Is smoky wine unhealthy?
Many wonder if smoke will add a health hazard to enjoying their alcohol of choice. But the danger lurks in the beginning of wine production, not its end.
“It’s actually more of a concern when this smoke happens right around the time when people want to pick grapes”, Tomasino says, pointing to vinyard workers. “You can’t have people pick grapes when the air is is unhealthy for breathing.” Protecting farm and vinyard workers is a task the industry has yet to solve.
On the bright side, drinking a smoky wine generally does not threaten people’s health, according to Tomasino. The smoke amounts she measured in wine were well below FDA und EPA guidelines for exposure. Nevertheless, this little trace of smoke can lead to an ashy taste.
And you can’t wash it off the grapes.
How does smoke get into a grape?
After a wildfire, it’s almost impossible to tell if it’s worth making wine from affected grapes. You can’t just pluck a grape and taste if it’s smoky or not. The fruit will kind of hide the taste - and only reveal it at the worst time.
I learn from Tomasino that smoke we can see in the air has several components. Particles make smoke hazy (and can be a health hazard). “But there are also these miniature droplets that contain aroma compounds”, says the scientist. And when fresh wildfire smoke wafts over a vinyard, these aromas land on the grapes - and they don’t stay on the surface.
Grapes absorb smoke aromas.
The grapes pull the smoke into their skins, so to speak. That is part of the plants’ defense against the smoke attack. “High enough concentrations of these compounds are like toxins to the grapes”, says Tomasino. “So to make it non-toxic, they attach sugars to the compounds.” And that’s why you can’t smell or taste the smoke anymore. The sugar masks it.
What really leads to a smoke taint in wine?
It could be all clear on the taste front if wildfire-affected wine grapes were just eaten as is. Scientists figured out the problem lies in the winemaking process:
Fermentation releases grape sugars. And the smoky taste with them.
Since the smoke aromas go into the grapes’ skins, red wine gets hit the hardest. After all, this type of wine is fermented with both juice and skins. Whereas skins are removed quickly in the process of making white wine.
Scientists also discovered differences between grape varieties.
“Say you had a vineyard and you had Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon in it, and the exact same amount of smoke came in. Then your Pinot Noir wine is going to be more ashy than the Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Elizabeth Tomasino, enologist at Oregon State University
That’s because a lot of things are responsible for a particular wine’s smell and taste. These differences are the reason why people grow and drink different kinds of wine in the first place.
Unfortunately, the highly smoke-succeptible Pinot Noir is the flagship wine in Oregon, where Tomasino works. Same problem with Petit Verdot in Washington. On the other hand, Syrah and Shiraz can handle quite a lot of smoke without producing a tainted wine after fermentation.
Winemakers might ferment a small batch to try. And chances are they will be able to taste smoke early in the winemaking process. However, it can take up to nine months to fully release.
All this leads winemakers to rally for research and appropriate funding. Vinyard owners don’t want to pay for harvesting grapes that won’t make nice wine. They want tests. Winemakers don’t want to bottle wine that will taste like an ashtray a few months later. They want to know if there’s anything they can do during fermentation to make an unwanted taste go away.
So what will keep a smoke taint from wine?
Even if you only focus on the tiny detail of how wildfire smoke affects wine, wildfires are a complicated problem. And yet, experts like Elizabeth Tomasino have found a few answers. Next week, I’ll write about what kind of solutions scientists and winemakers are working on.
Read, eat drink, repeat!
Petrina
Climate Culinarians is a project by me, Petrina Engelke. I write about climate, food and the U.S., and I help other writers turn their ideas into a book people want to read. In other words: I’m a journalist and a book coach. Read more about this newsletter & me here.
Another interesting article, Petrina! I've tasted smoke-impacted wines from Oregon and from Okanagan (BC, Canada) and didn't really enjoy them, but wildfires have affected vineyards in both regions over the past few years. I'll keep tasting/buying the wines to support small businesses, but have also relied on local wine shops to guide me to "less smoky" varieties.