Some people want all that smoke in food and drinks — think barbecue or scotch — and that may help winemakers increasingly dealing with the effects of wildfires.

A new study from Oregon State University and researchers in New Zealand found that consumers who like smokey flavors are open to drinking smoke-impacted wines.

Label information can influence acceptance for those who don’t prefer smoke.

“Our findings indicate that there is more forgiveness among consumers for these smokey wines than winemakers think,” said Elizabeth Tomasino, an OSU enology professor.

“It seems winemakers have a lot more options if they want to sell wine made with these grapes,” she added.

Pinot noir focus

For the study, OSU sent smoke-impacted and non-smokey wine made from Willamette Valley Pinot noir grapes to Massey University in New Zealand.

Pinot noir is Oregon’s flagship grape and research regarding it would bring industry the most value, Tomasino said. That variety also is particularly susceptible to smoke taint.

“We’re trying to figure out why,” Tomasino said.

Smoke impact typically is a bigger problem for red wines because skins are kept on grapes in fermentation.

Tomasino didn’t disclose the participating winery, but said wine used in the study had been on store shelves and tasted on the threshold of becoming ashy.

New Zealand tastings

New Zealand was chosen because its wines haven’t been significantly impacted by fires, so consumers would be unburdened by emotional and negative responses regarding wildfires, Tomasino said.

Future work will compare findings with panels from Portland and Ohio.

In New Zealand, researchers recruited about 200 participants, identifying those who liked and disliked smoke before tastings.

Smoke-likers had an average score of 6.86 on a nine-point scale.

The smoke-disliking segment had an average score of 3.26.

Label power

The introduction of labels increased scores of the smoke-dislikers from just over three to more than five.

One of the labels overtly referenced wildfires with the words “Smoke Stack, experience the 2020 vintage with this unique, lightly smokey wine.”

Different labels didn’t have much influence on the smoke-likers.

Winemakers could take different approaches to labeling and marketing to target consumers with smokey palettes.

They also have potential tools to make smoke-impacted wines more viable for the market, including blending.

Most Oregon wineries have already tried blending smoke impacted wine with non-impacted wine, Tomasino said.

She didn’t know what the optimal level of smoke would be, but OSU is studying that, as well as how other components of wine alter smoke perception.

Wildfires background

The number and size of wildfires is growing globally, posing a threat to the wine industry.

The West Coast’s 2020 wildfires caused industry losses of up to $3.7 billion, according to an economic analysis.

Following the 2020 wildfire season, a research team led by OSU scientists received a $7.65 million USDA grant to study smoke impacts on wine.

Since then, researchers have made several advances, including developing spray-on coatings that have shown promise in preventing off flavors in wines from smoke.