Fire and Wine: Part 2
From John, November 5th, 2020On November 5th, we pressed off our last red wine fermenter (the Nebbiolo). So it is now time to report on what we see in the cellar from the 2020 vintage.
To briefly recap, after the smoke subsided, we delayed picking until 2 significant rain events were behind us. At that point we had no idea what to expect, but the drenching rain seemed to have removed all soot and ash from the surface of the grapes.
In order to minimize possible smoke contamination from the skins, fermentations of the red fruit were conducted with very gentle techniques to allow the whole berries that come out of our de-stemmer to remain mostly intact. The white fruit was pressed as whole clusters on a more gentle press cycle than previous years. While fermentations smelled rather normal, only in our imaginations did we smell smoke taint. That is because, rather insidiously, volatile phenols from smoke form chemical linkages with grape sugars in the juice (non-volatile glycosides) which are odorless. Therefore, assuming the fruit is not covered with soot, aromas of smoke taint will not typically show themselves until the end of the fermentations when the sugars have been consumed by the yeast and the volatile smoke phenols are released.
It is only now that we can truly assess the situation at Cameron. At this point, it appears that we have dodged the bullet. Most of our finished wines smell normal (which for Pinot noir means some merde, salumi, mushrooms and dark cherries and for the whites a bit of grapefruit rind, pears and yeast). Even barrels that may perhaps show a trace of smoke should recover because these smoky aromas will likely integrate into the wine rather seamlessly, much like the smoke from barrel toast (which, incidentally, is composed of the same phenols). The other factor in our favor is that the 2020 vintage produced extremely small berried clusters (our yield was less than one ton per acre). Small clusters will typically produce very aromatically intense wines which will mask other subtleties in the wine.
Clearly smoke taint is real and only the luck of the gods (1) put us in a location further from the fires and the intensity of their smoke and (2) brought us significant rain to wash the fruit clean of soot. Our hearts go out to all of those growers and wineries who were more significantly affected.
Share ThisRecent News & Rants
The Incredibly Intense Wines from 2021
Most of us in the Oregon Wine Industry remember the summer of 2021 by one seemingly catastrophic event in June: the “Heat Dome”. But strangely enough, its timing set us up for an epic vintage!
There’s More... >The Challenging 2022 Vintage
Because of a freakish snowstorm coupled with freezing fog in mid-April, Clos Electrique and Abbey Ridge Vineyards lost a substantial amount of their 2022 crop. Please read on to hear how we handled this challenging and unique vintage.
There’s More... >The Big Freeze
April 2022 donned as a typical classic Oregon spring with lots of wet weather and moderate temperatures pushing the buds on the vines to expand and open. And then out of nowhere came a blast of frigid Arctic air in mid-April that settled on us for several days plunging the temperature into the mid-20’s. When it was done, about 70% of the crop in Clos Electrique were almost completely wiped out.
There’s More... >