Wildfire Smoke Taints California Wineries With Ashy Flavor

KTLA ^ | 9/23

[nickcarraway]

Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation’s most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage.

Wineries in California, Oregon and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year’s blazes has been especially bad — thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world.

No one knows the extent of the smoke damage to the crop, and growers are trying to assess the severity. If tainted grapes are made into wine without steps to minimize the harm or weed out the damaged fruit, the result could be wine so bad that it cannot be marketed.

[discostu]

Time to invent a new wine. Scotch with grapes. Where the scorch is part of the flavor.

[freedumb2003]

It will be the grape industry. Very few wineries actually grow their own grapes. The vines you see are almost always for show.

Wines will be more expensive with imported out of sate grapes.

[nwrep]

[Blurb2350]

Exactly. A clever marketing pro could make smoky wine the latest must-have beverage.

[humblegunner]

Y’all smokin’ taints out there now?

[nickcarraway]

They do smoky tequila.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

In 1808, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga encountered and named the Sacramento Valley and the Sacramento River. A Spanish writer with the Moraga expedition wrote: "Canopies of oaks and cottonwoods, many festooned with grapevines, overhung both sides of the blue current. Birds chattered in the trees and big fish darted through the pellucid depths.

The air was like champagne, and (the Spaniards) drank deep of it, drank in the beauty around them. "¡Es como el sagrado sacramento! (It's like the Blessed Sacrament.)" The valley and the river were then christened after the "Most Holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ", referring to the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist.

https://www.triposo.com/loc/Sacramento2C_California/history/background

[jimfree]

Pinot Greenieo? Tinderbox Nouveau?

[Blurb2350]

Chateauneuf du Puff.

[Flick Lives]

Wouldn’t a good rain wash off the grapes on the vine?

[SteelPSUGOP]

This is why wineries hold back stock for each of their years, because they may have a bad year. The nice thing about wine, good wine, is it gets better the longer it is held back.

Of course if the vines themselves are damaged, tough. They are like a small burned out shop in Minneapolis, “you have insurance for that......”

[Fungi]

Yep. That is why there is “estate vintage.”

[Signalman]

It’s one disaster after another in the blue states, while the red states are doing OK. Even here in NV, which voted for Shrillary last time but where DJT is only 1 pt. behind Bite-me in the latest poll, seems to be coming back strongly.

[cnsmom]

Sorry CA but this is good news for the Trump Winery in VA.

[amorphous]

For future reference: Avoid California 2020 vintages!

[17th Miss Regt]

For a short while in the early 70’s there was a brand of party wines called Smoky Mountain Wines.

[Inyo-Mono]

I didn’t know that!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

My thoughts exactly. If life gives you ashy grapes, make single malt wine!

[Impala64ssa]

Reminds me of an episode of Sanford and Son, Fred, in his raspy voice: “I made a new drink. I mixed Champagne and Ripple. I call it CHAMPIPPLE!”