California Fires Effect on the Wine Industry

Dr. Herederich adds some short-term pre-production mitigation options exist, including analyzing grapes from vineyards exposed to smoke for the presence of volatile phenols, as well—critically—for phenolic glycosides.

“We’d suggest to ferment batches with somewhat elevated concentrations separately,” he says, “So if required they can be subjected to additional fining or RO treatments, spinning cone distillation, or blending. Otherwise, don’t process grapes at all if phenolic glycosides are substantially increased.

Lessons learned and long-term mitigation options are very much company-specific, and need to consider the business model and product and brand profile.”