Alas the grapes

My iPod immersion has blinded me to the truly shattering news stories that have been breaking the last few days. No, I don't mean the economy, housing starts, presidential elections or Iranian rumblings. I MEAN THE GRAPE HARVEST!!!

We have had smokey air for weeks now. The fires have burned up more of California than any other round of fires in our history. This is the way California prepares for mudslides later on in the year. (Our four seasons are Rain, Mudslides, Fires and Earthquakes.)

In chat I half-jokingly mentioned that all the smoke on the grapes might serve the same function as the smoked wine barrels used to give some wines a slightly smokey taste. Au contraire--we have a major situation on our hands here in Wine Country.While a slight smokey taste might be acceptable in cabernet grapes they simply aren't tolerated in a pinot. And one could get the vapors just thinking of a smokey Riesling! What are all the wine makers to do?

The grape growers are receiving input from vineyards as far away as Australia and British Columbia.

The Sonoma Winegrape Commission is divided over how much damage has been done to the grapes. There is actually a business that removes smoke from grapes--Memstar North America, a Santa Rosa-based wine filtration company that offers a service to remove smoky flavors from tainted wine. There is another company over in Napa, Wine Secrets, which removes the taint of smoke. (Ain't capitalism great?)

Smoke gets into the vine leaves, sneaks into the grapes and gets released during fermentation. Some of the words used to describe wine made from smoke-damaged grapes are "bacon" and "wet ashtray." This would not make good ad copy!

I will keep you posted but I suspect this will be a good year for cabs and there will be a glut of charred half-barrels at your local nursery.