Want wine that tastes like an ashtray? Neither does OSU

Jami Seymore
·2 min read
2

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — As lawsuits by area wineries gain traction against Pacific Power related to smoke-damaged grapes from the 2020 Labor Day fires, experiments are underway at Oregon State University to protect the crops from being damaged in the first place.

“2020 was a very impactful year. While there had been small amounts of research happening, the industry as a whole recognized that we had a significant problem,” said Elizabeth Tomasino, an associate professor of enology – the study of wine – at OSU.

Following 2020, many Oregon wineries in the Willamette Valley lost their crops because the grapes were tainted by lingering wildfire smoke, giving the resulting wine a bad flavor.

<em>Jim Bernau, founder and winegrower of Willamette Valley Vineyards, speaks at his winery blanketed in smoke from wildfires on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Turner, Ore. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)</em>
Jim Bernau, founder and winegrower of Willamette Valley Vineyards, speaks at his winery blanketed in smoke from wildfires on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in Turner, Ore. (AP Photo/Andrew Selsky)

“It will cause the wine that results from the clusters to taste like like an ashtray,” Willamette Valley Vineyards CEO Jim Bernau told KOIN 6 News. “Now let me tell you, you’re not going to delight any wine enthusiast with wine that tastes like an ashtray, but that’s the effect of it.”

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For years, researchers at OSU have worked on solutions, including developing a protective coating for the grapes.

In what they’re calling their third round of “formulation” as they develop the right formula that works, they’ve successfully blocked more than half of the seven smoke compounds.

“Four of them, we’ve been able to show that when you apply these coating for a smoke event, you get very decreased levels, Tomasino said.

Beyond Oregon, this could benefit areas known for their wine-making that also battle frequent wildfires, like California and Australia. As for what’s in the groundbreaking spray, OSU can’t reveal, but said the base of it has gone through FDA-approval as a food ingredient.

“We are also looking at if we need to wash it off or not, but the original formulation is based off something very safe for humans to consume,” Tomasino said.

Winemakers like Bernau say that while they hope fires such as those in 2020 won’t happen again, this spray coating can protect and prepare Oregon’s wine economy and local businesses in the future.

An OSU researcher works to protect grapes from wildfire smoke (Undated, OSU)
An OSU researcher works to protect grapes from wildfire smoke (Undated, OSU)

“This is about a 50-year event that affected us in 2020. So it helps us because it gets us prepared,” Bernau said. “These scientists at Oregon State University will save the industry and eventually the consumer billions of dollars over the life of this innovation.”

OSU said there’s still more testing and research to be done, but if successful, they could see this being cleared for use in 3-5 years.

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