ARS researchers are helping U.S. wine growers better manage their grapes after wildfire events. Wildfire smoke damages wine grape quality and costs the U.S. wine industry hundreds of millions of dollars per wildfire event. Volatile phenols carried in the smoke are absorbed by grapes and can be released by typical wine fermentation processes. Wines damaged in this way have a burnt flavor known as smoke taint. These are typically downgraded or destroyed, depending on the degree of quality loss. ARS researchers in Davis, CA, employed new molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), which act like antibodies, to target and remove smoke compounds from impacted wine.
This technology is available and has been approved for use in wine treatment on a commercial scale. The trials demonstrated targeted removal of smoke phenols from experimentally smoke impacted wine. Since prevention of wildfire smoke in vineyards is not currently possible due to limited timing and expense, this new capability to remediate volatile smoke phenols is a critical tool to recover value for wineries. This increases the possibility that American wine grape growers can sell smoke impacted fruit to wineries to produce high-quality wines.
— Story contributed by the USDA Ag Research Service