Amid increasing incidents of wildfires across the globe, Oregon State University (OSU) is stepping up with a new laboratory designed to address an emerging issue in viticulture: smoke taint in wine grapes. The lab, a revamped storage unit transformed into the Smoke, Wine, and Grapes Analytical Chemistry Lab, aims to enable winemakers to test for smoke damage more efficiently.
Assistant Professor Cole Cerrato, from the university's Department of Food Science and Technology, heralded the lab's state-of-the-art facilities. In the face of pressing demand in 2020, with the valley and beyond producing a significant quantity of samples needing analysis, the existing testing capacity was found lacking. "It's just a really cool looking lab, and this is where the nerdy side of me kind of comes out," Cerrato told KGW.
While the focus of this new lab is on early detection of compounds in grapes, it isn't OSU's only venture in fighting smoke taint. Another endeavor investigates a potential preventive measure. The university is working on a spray-on coating for grapes that could protect them from smoke taint, a product which could reach the market in the coming years, according to KOIN.
This laboratory does not just serve the local industry but has wider implications for wine regions globally. "As you start looking at fire maps, just across places that are synonymous with really high quality wines — France, Germany, Spain, Italy — they’re all starting to see an uptick in the severity of wildfires that they’re getting as well," Cerrato explained to KOIN. The $2.7 million facility received its funding not only from federal and state sources but also from stakeholders within the wine industry, ensuring there's vested interest from multiple quarters in the lab’s success.
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