Measuring Grape Smoke Taint Protection

Smoke taint has become a recurring issue since 2008, and one that has led to crop losses as well as legal disputes between growers and processors. With the expectation that the intensity and frequency of wildfires will continue to increase in California and impact the winegrape producing regions, it is important to investigate potential ways to mitigate the impact of grape smoke exposure. There are now a number of products and processes available in the market to treat the wine, but also materials to prevent or limit the impact of smoke exposure by applying a protective material to the grapes. As these are new problems and new remedies, it is important to have a means to test the effectiveness of such treatments. We created a simple standardized evaluation of grape protection treatments in order to compare their relative effectiveness.