Can We Save Wine from Wildfires?

"According to Mike Zolnikov, who tends a couple of acres of Pinot Noir and an acre of Chardonnay on a flat, slightly soggy patch of the central Willamette Valley, in Oregon, it had been a once-in-a-decade growing season. "Not too hot, not too wet," he recalled, wistfully. "It would have been a really great year." A few hundred miles south, in California's Napa Valley, the winemaker Ashley Egelhoff, of Honig Vineyard and Winery, was feeling similarly about her Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc."

"For wine growers and makers, each season offers a series of fresh yet familiar opportunities for disaster. Drought shrivels the grapes; excessive heat deprives the juice of acidity; too much rain results in rampant mold. "But that's the fun of it," Egelhoff said. "Every harvest brings a surprise." The gamble of spraying early or of picking the grapes late, the black magic of fermentation, the art of blending: it's precisely the puzzle of chance and choice that keeps winemakers hooked."

"That August, the West Coast's worst fire season in history began. More than eleven thousand bolts of lightning struck central and Northern California in the span of thirty-six hours, heralding the start of an orange-skied autumn in which flights were suspended, more than eight million acres burned across twelve states, and winemakers' dreams of a perfect vintage went up in flames."

An unprecedented 2020 West Coast fire season produced widespread smoke that spoiled otherwise excellent grape harvests across Oregon and California. Growers reported Goldilocks growing conditions until lightning-driven fires and thick smoke arrived during pickup, contaminating Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc. Smoke compounds impart ashtray-like flavors that can ruin vintages and force massive financial losses across the wine industry. Seasonal hazards—drought, heat, rain and smoke—amplify growers' risks. Researchers are now pursuing solutions to detect, prevent or mitigate smoke taint to protect wine quality and reduce economic damage.

Read at The New Yorker