The BC Wine Grape Council has participated in funding research at UBCO to develop methods to identify regionally-specific molecules involved in smoke residues so as to allow producers to predict degree of smoke taint in wine from the chemical composition of smoke-exposed berries, thus enabling them to minimize economic and quality impacts of smoke exposure. We feel this work has significantly contributed to the body of knowledge concerning the chemistry of smoke taint in wine. Smoke taint has been identified by the industry members of the BCWGC R&D Committee as a high priority research subject.
What we have found from past experience and literature search is that smoke taint in wine arises from very close exposure of vines to wildfire at very specific stages in berry development. Currently we do not expect to see significant widespread impact from the 2018 wildfires.
Supporting documents related to this project are shared in the links below.