Okanagan winemakers may face a smoky future

Fires can taint the grapes for better or worse wine

VANCOUVER— When winemaker Bill Eggert watched a massive wildfire burn closer and closer to his Golden Mile winery in 2015, he had no idea whether the blaze would affect his yield that year.

He knew that scientists had discovered a phenomenon called ‘taint,’ where smoke-exposed wine grapes devolve into an ashy state completely unusable for winemaking.

But that year, the fire didn’t encroach too closely upon Eggert’s grapes. Nor did it stay too far. As it turned out, it came just close enough.

That was the year he produced his unique Fumé Franc, so named because the proximity of that year’s wildfire to his vineyards gave the wine a smoky flavour. It’s sold out, but Eggert still gets calls for more.

“I didn’t do anything different that year,” he said in an interview Friday. “The smoke, as you could say, was part of the terroir of the vineyard so it was nothing I did, it was what nature provided me.”

As wildfires burn across the province of B.C., prompting thousands of evacuations and the declaration of a state of emergency, wine makers and lovers are now left wondering if the flames will stay far enough at bay so as not to damage their grapes.

“I don’t have a crystal ball. The smoke’s been heavy this year, but it hasn’t been a major concern to the industry yet,” said Matthew Noestheden, a PhD student at The University of British Columbia Okanagan who studies the impact of smoke on wine grapes.

He described wine tainted by smoke in colourful terms: “It tastes like you lick a wet ashtray,” he said. “It doesn’t always happen but when it does it’s obviously a big concern for wineries.”

Noestheden said that, as the fires rage on, there’s little wineries can currently do to shield their grapes, except wait and see how close the clouds of smoke get. His current research is looking to change that. Next week Noesthedenn will start field trials for a study on steps grape growers can take to mitigate the risks of taint.

He’s doing the research because the problem shows no sign of going away. The last three years in B.C. have seen greater frequency and severity of wildfires — a consequence of climate change considered the ‘new normal’ for this province.

“That’s why we feel this research is so important,” Noestheden said. “It’s probably not going away and winemakers need to adjust their practices.”

Smoke absorption into the grapes isn’t the only effect wildfires can have on grapes. Vancouver Sommelier instructor Keith Nicholson said the presence of smoke in the skies blocking sunlight and limiting the time grapes may ripen.

“It’s pretty interesting, exciting, and scary times for wine growers that’s for sure,” Nicholson said. The declaration of a state of emergency too, Nicholson said, could have a negative impact on tourism for wineries. For Eggert, it’s not all bad. “Wine, good wine that is from a place is based on the terroir of that place,” he said. “It just so happens that in the Okanagan, part of our terroir is smoke.”