Dealing with smoke taint in wines
The Battle Creek Research smoke taint study
Forward Fire, Manton, CA
Sep 9, 2022
Life in the fire zone
Situated near the Shasta/Tehama County border, our vines have been exposed to three of the four largest fires in California’s history (see table below).
The 2024 Park Fire was halted only a mile and a half from the vineyard. We thank the brave firefighters who saved our facility and the homes and property of so many others.
The Park Fire was one of the fastest expanding fires in history, consuming 5,000 acres per hour after first igniting, following weeks of extreme heat. July of 2024 was California’s hottest month ever recorded. We expect to see more, not fewer, of such fires across the warming earth.
Like good scientists, we recognized a natural experiment when we saw one. We had been growing a number of varieties of grapes and all of them were exposed to the same amount of smoke. We are currently assessing each variety to see how their responses to the volatile compounds that lead to smoke taint differ. We hope to help vintners in fire-prone areas like ours select grape varieties resistant to the influence of smoke-taint.
| Top Four | Fire | Acres | Year | Counties | BCR Grapes Effected? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | August Complex | 1,032,648 | 2020 | Mendocino, Humboldt, Trinity, Tehama, Glenn, Lake and Colusa | YES |
| 2 | Dixie | 963,309 | 2021 | Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta and Tehama | YES |
| 3 | Mendocino Complex | 459,123 | 2018 | Colusa, Lake, Mendocino and Glenn | no |
| 4 | Park | 429,259 | 2024 | Butte, Plumas, Shasta and Tehama | YES |
Park Fire burn scar
False-color image showing shortwave infrared, near infrared, and visible light, revealing the burn scar through the smoke. (July 27, 2024)
Park Fire smoke plume
Natural color image. Both images captured by the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9.
(July 27, 2024)
Battle Creek Research vineyard location indicated by the yellow star, indicating considerable smoke exposure.