The Washington State Wine Commission hosted a talk Wednesday highlighting research into how wineries around the state can fight the impacts of wildfire smoke on wine grapes.
The issue of “smoke taint” has grown increasingly pressing in recent years as wildfire smoke has become a regular presence in the region at the same time the industry has exploded to nearly $10 billion in yearly value in Washington.
Most of the state’s more than 1,000 wineries are clustered around the Columbia River, so the irrigation-dependent crop can grow in the arid rain shadow just east of the Cascade Mountains.
Tom Collins, an associate professor at Washington State University’s Viticulture Extension program, led the hourlong event. He focused on four strategies he’s spent the better part of the last decade studying.
Spraying grapes with “barrier sprays” made of water and clay was the first one.
Those materials are applied before or early in smoke exposure “with a goal of making some kind of a barrier, or in some fashion preventing the compounds that are present in the smoke from reaching the grapevine and, more importantly, the clusters of the fruit,” Collins explained.
While some early research on the topic has been inconclusive, one big takeaway from Collins’ work is that washing the clay off grapes after smoke exposure helps lower levels of smoke-related compounds in the fruit.
Collins then highlighted the role of increased air-quality monitoring in fighting smoke taint, before talking about filtering and some more dense, scientific strategies like RNA transcriptomics.
Over the past decade, wildfire smoke has descended upon Washington many more years than it hasn’t.
And Collins’ research has found that impacts from smoke can happen fast.
“Within the first two hours, gene expression is changing from the presence of smoke, so the response to the vine is quick,” Collins said. “We’re seeing pathways being turned on, defense mechanisms, things related to vine stress.”
Findings like those have the increasingly important industry on edge — even after its rapid and successful rise to regional prominence.
While the $233 million market value of Washington wine grapes in 2022 was only a fraction of the state’s most significant crops like apples, wheat and potatoes, wineries have grown at a time when those main crops have struggled.
In 2000, Washington had 74 wineries. By 2012, that number had climbed to 515, and it crossed 1,000 just seven years later, Washington Wine Commission data shows. That growth came at the same time the number of apple farms has dropped significantly, cementing wine’s place as a significant Washington agricultural and tourism player.
Collins’ research to address smoke taint is set to continue, with U.S. Department of Agriculture grant funding extending into the future.
Others, however, have proposed a different approach to the problem: acceptance and even appreciation.
As one Oregon winemaker told a trade publication, “The wildfires are totally part of the terroir.”
