West Coast Red Wine

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey

Peter Creasey
I'm learning about numerous prominent and lesser wine producers on the west coast deciding not to produce red wine in 2020.

What are the effects that smoke taint has on red wine? What is the nature of the concerns and how valid are they?

Can crop insurance be expected to provide relief?

. . . . . Pete
 
Just skimmed half of the thread. I saw lots about smoke-testing labs being all backed-up, not much about insurance. Reports of smoke are that it is very uneven: it skipped Napa and Sonoma for much of the period but there is some smoke penetration. It'll be hit or miss.

Insurance? Oh, they'll find a way not to pay, rest assured.
 
Ed Kurtzman (Sandler, August West) sent some samples to a lab in Australia. He said turnaround time to get results would be quicker than using local labs! Haven't heard any updates from him.
 
originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ed Kurtzman (Sandler, August West) sent some samples to a lab in Australia. He said turnaround time to get results would be quicker than using local labs! Haven't heard any updates from him.
Click to expand...

Smart move, I wonder how many other people are doing this. I'm not up on the latest, but can they detect guaiacol and it's smoky relatives if they are bound with the sugar molecules? That was the issue previously - they aren't released until fermentation.

Flash detente has shown promise in preventing this, but I don't think there are many such machines on the west coast.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ed Kurtzman (Sandler, August West) sent some samples to a lab in Australia. He said turnaround time to get results would be quicker than using local labs! Haven't heard any updates from him.
Click to expand...

Smart move, I wonder how many other people are doing this.
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At least one maker in that thread did so. He awaits.
 
originally posted by robert ames:
"Can crop insurance be expected to provide relief?"

reading the policy will answer that question.
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Yes, growers can purchase crop insurance that includes smoke taint as a covered loss. Typically, the policy kicks in if the grower receives less than a set amount of income from crop sale for a vineyard, with the loss resulting from a covered event.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
originally posted by Larry Stein:
Ed Kurtzman (Sandler, August West) sent some samples to a lab in Australia. He said turnaround time to get results would be quicker than using local labs! Haven't heard any updates from him.
Click to expand...

Smart move, I wonder how many other people are doing this. I'm not up on the latest, but can they detect guaiacol and it's smoky relatives if they are bound with the sugar molecules? That was the issue previously - they aren't released until fermentation.

Flash detente has shown promise in preventing this, but I don't think there are many such machines on the west coast.
Click to expand...

It's possible to test berries, but the testing takes longer and is seriously backed up. Testing fermented micro-lots is usually quicker, but that's extremely backed up now too. Lots of growers and wineries are in the position of having to decide whether to harvest and vinify grapes without knowing whether they are tainted and,if so, to what level. It's a difficult position.
 
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:
It's possible to test berries, but the testing takes longer and is seriously backed up. Testing fermented micro-lots is usually quicker, but that's extremely backed up now too. Lots of growers and wineries are in the position of having to decide whether to harvest and vinify grapes without knowing whether they are tainted and,if so, to what level. It's a difficult position.
Click to expand...
Is it reasonable, then, to vinify as many small lots as you can handle, get them tested when you can, and then you'll know which to blend and which to dump?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:
It's possible to test berries, but the testing takes longer and is seriously backed up. Testing fermented micro-lots is usually quicker, but that's extremely backed up now too. Lots of growers and wineries are in the position of having to decide whether to harvest and vinify grapes without knowing whether they are tainted and,if so, to what level. It's a difficult position.
Click to expand...
Is it reasonable, then, to vinify as many small lots as you can handle, get them tested when you can, and then you'll know which to blend and which to dump?
Click to expand...

Yes, under some circumstances. Where the winery is not the grower, the winery may not care so much about maximizing production and avoiding the crop loss.
 
I forget where I read this, but a winemaker pointed out that not all smoke affects wine. It depends on how much VOC is in the smoke. Particulates don’t present a problem.

Mark Lipton
 
Is there any experience with how the 2017s turned out after those fires that has informed decision making for 2020? Or that helps because growers / wineries rejiggered their insurance policies after 2017?
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:
It's possible to test berries, but the testing takes longer and is seriously backed up. Testing fermented micro-lots is usually quicker, but that's extremely backed up now too. Lots of growers and wineries are in the position of having to decide whether to harvest and vinify grapes without knowing whether they are tainted and,if so, to what level. It's a difficult position.
Click to expand...
Is it reasonable, then, to vinify as many small lots as you can handle, get them tested when you can, and then you'll know which to blend and which to dump?
Click to expand...

Wineries were desperate to get berries tested so they would know whether it was worth incurring the not inconsiderable cost of picking and pressing the grapes and many had a narrow window as grape ripeness was forcing a decision. Growers who sell their grapes to wineries were in a really tough position as they could provide no assurance to their clients that the grapes weren’t tainted. COVID made it even worse for many growers, as depressed sales have left many wineries with excess inventory and thus an incentive to try to get out of contracts for 2020 grapes. The lawyers will be the only winners here from the inevitable flood of contract and insurance disputes and bankruptcies.
 
originally posted by Mike Evans:
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Jim Hanlon:
It's possible to test berries, but the testing takes longer and is seriously backed up. Testing fermented micro-lots is usually quicker, but that's extremely backed up now too. Lots of growers and wineries are in the position of having to decide whether to harvest and vinify grapes without knowing whether they are tainted and,if so, to what level. It's a difficult position.
Click to expand...
Is it reasonable, then, to vinify as many small lots as you can handle, get them tested when you can, and then you'll know which to blend and which to dump?
Click to expand...

Wineries were desperate to get berries tested so they would know whether it was worth incurring the not inconsiderable cost of picking and pressing the grapes and many had a narrow window as grape ripeness was forcing a decision. Growers who sell their grapes to wineries were in a really tough position as they could provide no assurance to their clients that the grapes weren’t tainted. COVID made it even worse for many growers, as depressed sales have left many wineries with excess inventory and thus an incentive to try to get out of contracts for 2020 grapes. The lawyers will be the only winners here from the inevitable flood of contract and insurance disputes and bankruptcies.
Click to expand...

Footnote: despite the meltdown on-premise, wine sales overall have probably improved in 2020. There is no single data source for all wine purchases at the consumer level, and timing or lag issues at the wholesale and bonded warehouse/winery level; but the major sources by channel and tier range from down very slightly to up double digits (%). The main driver of excess inventory is the intersection of a couple of large California harvests plus sales growth flattening during 2019. That said, Covid adds a large degree of uncertainty, which surely skews inventory management and sales forecasts to the conservative side. And now smoke taint risk on top of that. A brutal year for growers on the West Coast.
 
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
The main driver of excess inventory is the intersection of a couple of large California harvests plus sales growth flattening during 2019. That said, Covid adds a large degree of uncertainty, which surely skews inventory management and sales forecasts to the conservative side. And now smoke taint risk on top of that. A brutal year for growers on the West Coast.
Click to expand...
A regular occurrence? (Well, minus the pandemic, most of the time. But too much fruit + fires.)
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
originally posted by Christian Miller (CMM):
The main driver of excess inventory is the intersection of a couple of large California harvests plus sales growth flattening during 2019. That said, Covid adds a large degree of uncertainty, which surely skews inventory management and sales forecasts to the conservative side. And now smoke taint risk on top of that. A brutal year for growers on the West Coast.
Click to expand...
A regular occurrence? (Well, minus the pandemic, most of the time. But too much fruit + fires.)
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If by regular, you mean recurring, sure: wine cycles. But the current situation is a unique confluence of cyclical oversupply, fire (though not as bad as last time), flattening demand (vs. a few years ago), and massive shifts in sales channels due to Covid-19. Topped with the pandemic's direct personal impact on industry employment, behavior, health and psyche.
 
On a different slant is this unconfirmed assertion by Jeff Leve "damaged or destroyed; Amarosa, Blueline, Burgess, Chateau Boswell, Burgess, Calistoga Ranch, Castillo di Amarossa, Calistoga Ranch, Failla, Fairwinds, Hourglass, Newton, Rombauer, Schramsburg, Titus and Meadowood are all damaged or gone."

Someone said Newton is "gone".

. . . . . Pete
 
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