About 75 people attended a daylong seminar, held on April 22 at the Washington State University Tri-Cities campus in Richland, about how wildfire smoke near vineyards affects the taste of wine. 

The mixture of researchers, winemakers and wine grape growers discussed how much the wine industry has learned over the past five years since the formation of the West Coast Smoke Exposure Task Force.

“We now know what we’re looking for,” said Arran Rumbaugh, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher from Davis, California.

Task force researchers have identified a complex array of chemical compounds in wildfire smoke that cause ashy or off flavoring that sometimes doesn’t manifest in wine until months after bottling, said Rumbaugh, the keynote speaker for the annual Washington Advancements in Viticulture and Enology, or WAVE, event. Five years ago, researchers primarily looked at just one compound — guaiacol.

Rumbaugh also said researchers have developed a road map for ongoing research into a baseline database to help define “normal” grape thresholds, rapid detection methods, atmospheric modeling and prevention/mitigation.

Other topics included how grape genetics affect smoke effects, prevention techniques for the vineyard and mitigation techniques for winemakers. •