No wine to waste
You may prefer your wine dry or fruity. But what about smoky? Oregon winemakers are seeking to avoid that option while saving their billion-dollar industry from the effects of wildfires.
written by JANE GLAZER and ANNA WARD
photographed by JILLIAN REGAN and WINTER WAGNER
The sky filled with dark thickets of smoke transforming the horizon into a deep red color, and the smell of ash became potent as Matt Berson drove from Portland to Aurora, Oregon, in September of 2020. Berson, a winemaker and the owner of Portland Wine Company, was on his way to check out a vineyard where he buys grapes. Each harvest season, Berson purchases several tons of grapes for his next vintage. A routine habit was starting to feel like a “scene from hell,” he said.
The Riverside and Beachie Creek fires caused devastating damage during the summer of 2020, affecting vineyards all over Oregon and creating concern for Berson and other winemakers. Grapes were burned, coated with smoke and dried out.
It was one thing to see the work of his planting compatriots compromised. It was another to see that the latest harvest wasn’t like anything he had previously dealt with. The Oregon wine industry community was one reason Berson wanted to become a winemaker; he described it as “a mutual back-scratching type thing,” where farmers and sellers are closely knit.
“I thought about the fact that I had no idea how to make wine out of grapes that were grown in hell,” Berson said. “I started just making a lot of phone calls and doing a lot of research and calling and calling.”
Berson is one of many Oregon winemakers who have not let the changing climate completely ruin their work. Instead, these winemakers have had to get creative. From formulating new versions of white wine to stripping smoke flavors through filtration processes, the wine industry is adapting.
Extreme heat and dryness isn’t uncommon for the wine industry. And while he was aware of smoke effects on grapes, Berson had never experienced it firsthand. Upon entering the smoky scene in the vineyard, Berson realized this once distant problem was now affecting his reality.
He had a lot to learn about dealing with smoky grapes. While the grapes had survived the fires — they weren’t burned to ash — the smoke in the air had damaged the integrity of the grapes. Their colorful outer layers were soaked in the smoke, leaving an intense smoky flavor, or “smoke taint.”
While hot summers weren’t too uncommon in Oregon, they became more consistent in the late 2010s. By 2020, hot summers were becoming detrimental. Berson and other winemakers have had to find new ways to salvage these smoked-out grapes, specifically when making red wine.
White wine is made by pressing the grapes and then fermenting the juice. The skin of the grape isn’t in the fermenter, meaning white wine is often unaffected from “smoke taint.”
Matt Berson, the winemaker and owner of Portland Wine Company, holds a glass of his 2021 Rosé of Pinot Noir.
But when making red wine, the whole grapes — skin included — are placed into the fermentation barrel. Without the skin, red wine would not have its distinctive hue. When grape harvest is impacted by wildfires, the skin is the source of the smoky flavor; if a red grape is smoke-tainted, that flavor is now in the barrel.
“This is what makes it so challenging; there can still be smoke taint even if it doesn’t show up in fermentation after something’s been bottled,” said Mary Orlin, a wine journalist familiar with the impact fires have had on California vineyards. “So winemakers either decide not to make anything, or they might sell the juice off to wine conglomerates who bottle under various labels.”
Smoke taint can confuse winemakers when making bottling decisions. It can show up at any point in the grape-to-bottle process, and sometimes the taint doesn’t show up until after the wine is bottled. Winemakers often must decide that their grapes are likely smoke-tainted, even if they can’t tell yet.
Oregon winemakers are experimenting with different ways to mitigate smoke taint in red wines and adapt to these new circumstances.
Twenty miles southeast of Portland Wine Company, in Sherwood, is Alloro Winery and Vineyard. Like Berson, the Alloro staff had to deal with a vineyard of grapes that had been damaged from the smoke. Andrew Ward, the cellar master at Alloro, remembers the thick layer of smoke that covered the area surrounding the vineyard and feeling unsure of how it would affect the 2020 vintage.
“There was a lot of doubts and questions around what this meant and what to do,” Ward said.
Alloro immediately pressed some of its grapes that would normally be used for red wine rather than waiting for them to ferment. The vineyard also created a white pinot noir as a way to salvage the tainted red grapes without integrating a smoky flavor.
Climate change affects the levels of acids and sugars in the grapes. During the aging process winemakers will taste composite blends, which are made up of grapes from different vineyards and winemaking processes.
Berson, however, still has about 1,000 gallons of red wine in two barrels sitting in Portland Wine Company’s storage room from the smoky 2020 harvest. He’s not sure what he’ll do with it, but he’s determined not to waste it. Experimenting has always been a part of the wine-making process, and salvaging this smoky harvest in a new way is another opportunity to do just that.
Portland Wine Company is looking into carbon and other treatments to strip the wine of its smoky flavor. The carbon treatment is a process similar to making decaffeinated coffee or alcohol-free beer.
In a little room adjacent to a cellar holding stacks of barrels, Berson has a lab filled with tools to experiment with the wine. This process has allowed him to discover more about what is in his wine and different ways to shift the flavor to adapt to the new reality of smoke taint.
“I definitely am learning things that I didn't think I'd have to and didn't necessarily want to,” Berson said.
Wine climatology is the practice of studying climate structure and suitability for all things wine. Greg Jones, a wine climatologist, says that climate change will continue to affect the wine industry. This research pertains to the environment and proactive ways to save the grapes from extreme heat and dryness. While researchers are trying to rid grapes of smoke taint, they are also searching for ways to better test for it before the wine is bottled.
“There are two or three compounds that are pretty important as precursors to the [smoky] taste that will happen in the wine,” Jones said. “Research is trying to figure out, do we have the ability to measure these precursors in the vineyard before the fruit is even harvested? We’re not quite there yet, but there’s a lot of really good work going on to try to figure that out.”
As wine ages in a barrel, it evaporates, requiring consistent refilling. Assistant winemaker Jessica Martinez tops off red wine barrels at Portland Wine Company.
Grapevines begin to bud in spring at Alloro Winery, which grows all of its own grapes.
Jones said that this research has been going on over the past 20 years or so, primarily in Australia where fires have been a consistent threat. As fire circumstances have worsened in the U.S., there is more funding to perform this research and find solutions. Most of the research is taking place at Washington State University, Oregon State University and the University of California-Davis through sensory scientists and wine chemists.
Research is also focused on salvaging grapes that have smoke taint. The Oregon Wine Symposium, an educational event for winemakers, recently allowed winemakers to taste wine that had gone through a charcoal filtration process to strip smoke flavor.
Jones said this process removes the smoke taste, but it often strips other rich flavors special to each type of wine, making the wine less interesting and unique. Alloro was concerned about stripping other flavors, so it didn’t attempt this process. Instead, it decided to create the white pinot noir.
“During this symposium session, we were able to taste a few wines, and it was pretty clear that the pre-treated and post-treated wine was quite different,” Jones said. “And so that was a really good sign that there are some possibilities.”
Jones said that the post-treated wine may not be desirable enough to sell on its own, but it is good to blend with other wines — a salvageable solution.
“It gets you at least to the place where you don’t have to pour product down,” Jones said. “I think we’re a pretty adaptable industry. We will find ways to be both proactive and reactive to help it out.”
Jones, Berson and Ward consistently described the wine industry as a resilient, creative community. Adapting to these circumstances, while maybe not convenient, is doable for many of these companies.
The behind-the-scenes stress of smoked-out-grapes doesn’t always overpower Berson’s work. When it does, adapting to the climate to continue this craft is worth the stress and uncertainty.
This spring, Portland Wine Company hosted its annual riesling party. Berson said he looked forward to these events, as he has grown close with many of the regulars. His customers are more than just customers — they’re members of his wine community with whom he has genuine connections. These moments bring comfort to Berson and his team despite all the changes they have been through.
Berson remembered that smoky September day when he realized his next batch of wine would be different from what he was used to. For his next vintage, he’ll be a little more prepared. He thought that all signs pointed to the likelihood for a smoky vintage repeat. “I do wish that I did more mitigation during the fermentation,” Berson said. “And next time around, I’ll definitely be more of a believer.”
Christmas Tree Struggle
Farms that grow Christmas trees, which are one of Oregon’s biggest exports, have also seen the effects of the hotter, drier climate on their business. Bob Schutte, owner of Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm in Pleasant Hill, said that in past years he hoped to harvest 80 to 90% of the Noble Firs his farm grows. Now, harvesting 60 to 70% is considered a success. Mike Turner, owner of Kessler’s Christmas Tree Farm also located in Pleasant Hill, said that his farm has lost 75% of what he planted this past year. The seedlings are suffering from the heat. Last summer, Schutte said that 90% of his new planting died.
“It was a real zinger,” Schutte said, referencing the intense heat and dryness his farm faced in April 2021. “You don’t know how bad the situation is at the time. Everything about Christmas trees is, you don’t have a rapid feedback system.”
Bob Schutte in one of his Christmas tree fields at Northern Lights Christmas Tree Farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon.
Unlike grapes, not much can be done with heat-damaged trees. Irrigation can help hydrate the plants during the heat, but not all farms in Oregon have them. Schutte has relied heavily on his irrigation rights to allow his trees to survive. Kessler’s doesn’t have an irrigation system and must hope for the best for its trees. Christmas trees take eight years to become fully grown and marketable; they are the most fragile in their first few years of growth. The heat is stunting seedling growth making it so they do not grow to their full size. Schutte and Turner both said that the climate circumstances are out of their control, and as a result they must try their best with keeping the trees hydrated and healthy, especially in the beginning stages.