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.

[GreyFriar]

“(It’s like the Blessed Sacrament.)” With a link like that to Christianity, we must move the Sacramento Valley to the top of the list of places to rename.

I’m being sarcastic, but the secularists and anti-Christians will be serious.

[cpdiii]

Unless the grape leaves have the ability to absorb the smoke and then via the vines system of delivering nutrients to the grapes this article is crap science. Those grapes are washed most thoroughly after harvest.

[ridesthemiles]

IS Newsom’s winery threatened?

[Jolla]

He said quote: The vines you see are almost always for show. I see a lot of vines between Santa Rosa and Cloverdale, around Bordeaux and Champagne, those vines I see are not almost always for show. Yes a few vines around a tasting room may be for show but I will not ever believe wineries will plant their very expensive acreage mostly just for show.

[bagster]

Y’all smokin’ taints out there now?

Depends on the taint.

Me? I'm very particular about the taints I smoke.

[freedumb2003]

I was pretty specific in saying the grape crop is the issue. Getting the varietals and quality will be a challenge.

As for those who challenged me on how many woneties zctually gtow their own grapes I can tell you tor years I did a lot of wibe tasting in Napa ans Sonoma and met many winemakers. The number one issue was finding the grapes they needed while deciding how they would craft each wine.

I overstated a bit .. yes the wineries might USE some the grapes you see but those vinyards are too small to be the source for mist of their wines.