Research

Multi-disciplinary research to provide smoke exposure solutions to wine grape growers and wineries is underway by a host of scientists at multiple land grant universities and research units of the Agricultural Research Service, the science arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Summaries, briefs and published research will be shared here as information becomes available.

Research Categories
Research is categorized by vineyard risk assessment, sensory evaluation and winery mitigation. Areas of study under vineyard risk include developing technology for rapid detection of smoke marker compounds at the vineyard level, atmosphere modeling, vineyard sensors to measure smoke marker compounds, vineyard barrier sprays to prevent absorption of unwanted smoke compounds and genetic resistance. Sensory evaluation research is focused on identifying threshold levels in wine and winery at which smoke exposure is not detectable, and winery mitigation research is developing technology that preserves wine quality when smoke compounds are removed from wine.