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Raze a glass

B.C. wineries feel the burn after smoke from last year’s wildfires taints harvest

GHADA ALSHARIF STAFF REPORTER

Gary Misson, owner of Montakarn Estate Winery, is facing the difficult reality that half of his grape harvest from the previous year may have gone up in smoke.

His winery, located just south of Okanagan Falls, was three kilometres away from the Thomas Creek wildfire, which began in July and went on for weeks, scorching more than 10,000 hectares of land. Columns of smoke also billowed from the nearby Nk’Mip Creek wildfire that happened at the same time last summer.

The winery itself was not physically damaged by the blaze. But smoke from the colossal fires blanketed the sky and travelled over swathes of land, seeping into the grapes of many vineyards in the Okanagan Valley, one of British Columbia’s top-producing wine regions.

The smoky air was enough to alter Misson’s red grapes, which he suspects were exposed during a specific ripening stage — known as veraison — that made them more vulnerable to smoke damage than his white grapes, which were unharmed.

“Fifty per cent of my volume — basically 100 per cent of my reds — have been affected by smoke. We were getting hit from lefts and rights and upper cuts. It was a combination of all the surrounding wildfires, I think,” Misson said. “The grapes are not heavily contaminated, but the impact is definitely there and we’re trying to see if we can fix it.”

“We’ve talked about the option of just not bottling it this year … the last thing I want to do is a release of a less-than-adequate wine.”

It has been a difficult year for B.C. wine producers after record-breaking summer temperatures and smoke taint from wildfires took a toll on the $2.8-billion industry, with average yields estimated to be down by 30 per cent due to extreme weather conditions, according to Wine Growers British Columbia. The Okanagan Valley, nicknamed the “Smokanagan” because of increasing wildfires in the area, in south-central B.C., is home to more than 85 per cent of the province’s 284 grape wineries.

The 2021 wildfire season in B.C. was the third worst on record in terms of area burned, and the town of Lytton broke Canadian heat records with temperatures peaking at a scorching 49.6 C.

Climate change and extreme weather patterns exacerbate the frequency and intensity of wildfires, driven by decreased rainfall, higher temperatures, lower humidity and increased wind speeds. Global wildfires are expected to increase by14 per cent by 2030, 30 per cent in 2050, and 50 per cent by the end of this century, the United Nations said in February.

A hint of smokiness in wine can be deemed desirable. Some effects from smoke can go undetected and even give similar flavour characteristics as wine aged in oak.

But when wine is smoke-tainted, an extreme result of smoke impact, the flavour is often compared to that of an ashtray. Most tainted wines are unsellable.

Smoke taint occurs when volatile phenols, a class of airborne molecules present in wildfire smoke, are absorbed into grape skins and vine leaves. In an attempt to get rid of them, enzymes in the grape bind the volatile phenols with sugar molecules to form new compounds, which are precursors to possibly undesirable smoky flavours.

But the extremely tricky part for wine producers is that these unpleasant flavours and odours only become apparent and are detected after fermentation, when yeast is added to the grape, and after wineries have invested money and time to harvest and ferment tonnes of grapes that initially smell perfectly fine.

Misson’s winery is not the only one to have been hit by extreme heat and climate conditions this past year. Another Okanagan winery, Blue Mountain Vineyard and Cellars also located in Okanagan Falls, announced in April that its grapes were contaminated by smoke from the Thomas Creek Wildfire and would not be bottling its 2021 vintage.

“While attempts to mitigate the impact of the contamination were tried, the results did not meet the winery’s quality standards,” the winery said in a statement. “We made the very difficult decision not to bottle the 2021 vintage simply because we were not willing to compromise the reputation.”

Smoke taint from wildfires is a global phenomenon and has had crushing impacts on wineries around the world including in Australia and California, which have had record-breaking wildfire seasons in recent years. Wine Australia estimated that the cost of smoke taint following the 2003 wildfires was $300 million in lost revenue.

Wine Growers British Columbia spokesperson Laura Kittmer said there is a silver lining to the smaller yields and extreme heat.

“Less wine was produced in 2021, but what we are seeing is the wine that was produced is very high quality with intense flavours,” Kittmer said. Wine Growers British Columbia said in an email that there is no data suggesting there will be a significant increase in the price of wine due to 2021’s decreased yield.

Mitigating the damage

Wesley Zandberg, an analytical chemist at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus, says smoke poses a massive threat to B.C.’s wine industry.

Zandberg studies smoke taint and ways to prevent smoke molecules from getting into the grapes in the first place. The concentration of contamination from volatile phenols he’s watching out for is measured in amounts as little as just 10 parts per billion.

“So a teaspoon of smoky aroma in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. Some volatile phenols are really pungent, it’s astonishingly low concentrations,” Zandberg said.

Zandberg and a team of students in his laboratory have been spearheading research on smoke taint since 2015.

Grapes are typically most vulnerable in the week or two following the period of veraison when the grape skin softens and changes colour. “It’s important to stress that smoke taint is not guaranteed every time you have smoke exposure,” Zandberg said.

He has been experimenting with different agricultural sprays, coating grapes that are placed inside tents filled with smoke from burned pine needles, local soil and bark, simulating the effects of a forest fire on B.C. vineyards. This summer, Zandberg hopes to continue evaluating already approved agricultural sprays to protect grapes, but said the use of the products is complicated.

“Sprays could be coating the grape in a way that’s protective so the smoke can’t get in. But on the flip side, you could be making the grapes stickier and the taint worse,” Zandberg said.

Ross Wise, chair of the British Columbia Wine Grape Council, said the industry is learning to adapt and that labs that test for smoke taint have been busier than usual, “probably out of an abundance of caution.”

“We can get our grapes tested before we harvest, so we get a good picture of whether there’s smoke impact on our wine. Then we can make decisions on whether we pick the grapes at all or whether we can hand harvest them,” Wise said.

Wise, who is also a winemaker at Black Hills Estate winery in Oliver, which was under an evacuation alert during the wildfires last summer, said hand harvesting was a good way to mitigate smoke impact.

“By hand harvesting grapes you enable the juice to stay out of contact with the skin of the grape for longer. Then you have the option of pressing the grape immediately when it gets to the winery,” Wise said.

“If you limit that contact time, it limits the potential to pick up smoke from the skin of the grapes, whereas machine harvest breaks the skin, so you have a bit more contact of the juice with the skin.”

Okanagan Valley, nicknamed ‘Smokanagan,’ is home to more than 85 per cent of the province’s 284 grape wineries

Effect on tourism

Wineries in the area whose grapes were not impacted by smoke taint did not get away from the devastating wildfire season scot-free.

Breanna Nathorst, spokesperson for Grizzli Winery in Kelowna, said the winery witnessed an 80 per cent decrease in traffic last summer because of smoke, despite being out of the way of ignited forests.

“Being a winery and in the tourism industry, you have to think a lot about international and non-local tourism,” Nathorst said. “We’ve had to update all of our offerings and experience to focus on our local neighbourhood because our nonlocal guests won’t visit if there’s smoke.”

The business model of the winery has been adjusted to include farmers markets and an outdoor cinema so locals can set up picnics and enjoy food on the weekends. “With all the cancellations, we really had to adapt quickly,” Nathorst said.

Montekarn’s Misson has also had to adjust. His smoke-affected red grapes are undergoing a treatment of activated carbon, which can neutralize undesirable flavours. He’s optimistic that it will work, but has resigned himself to the possibility that he might not be bottling a red vintage this year.

“It’s just the reality of where we’re living at this particular time on the planet. It’s getting warmer, there’s no doubt about it,” Misson said.

“It is what it is and there’s nothing I can do to change it.”

‘‘

It’s just the reality of where we’re living at this particular time on the planet. It’s getting warmer, there’s no doubt about it.

GARY MISSON WINERY OWNER IN B.C.

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2022-05-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-21T07:00:00.0000000Z

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