28 brix and you’re going to have color bleeding out of the grapes. That should mean much more VOCs. Even with a moderately ripe white grape that’s had some smoke exposure, you’d want to press off the skins right away and then drop out solids right away. You’d want to do the same with moderately ripe red grapes, and go as blanc or vin gris as possible. I’ve heard of a couple roses turning out smoke tainted this year. IMO the rose solution involves picking as early as possible. Also IMO, there are countless better options to make a decent wine this year. It would still be much easier and much less costly to make a much better rose from something else.
We’ll probably still buy it, tbh
How about Marc, grappa or brandy? Would the snake show through?
Am I missing something? There are plenty of wineries living on a knife’s edge that will be horribly impacted, and I suspect some will be out of business. I am not sure all the jokes are appropriate.
David, the sf chronicle link I posted was about exactly that (making grappa from tainted grapes).
Thanks. No benefits to being lazy. Couldn’t read it because of my adblocker
There are disaster relief programs that cover wild fires for uninsured ag. I saw one set of advice where to qualify, making the wine was required. Then, you’d be compensated the difference between what the grapes would normally sell for and the market price for bulk tainted wine - and no requirement to actually sell it, you can do whatever you want with it. Lots of testing requirements and such to document/prove the case. Can’t find it, but iirc it was a hybrid of programs, including a specific county. Wineries should have the applicable info from their growers associations. Anyway, there could be sunk cost juice available to play with. There are some really good distillers around who should have the judgement of what to do. It could be a good opportunity to make some interesting stuff with the best lots, while going full vodka with the rest.
Here’s a link with USDA programs, for starters: Disaster Assistance Programs
Mark, I see your point and want to let you know that I didn’t start the topic to make a joke out of a horrible situation. If anyone was offended, I apologize. My goal was to see if anyone can find any commercial product that we could potentially use with what appears to be highly coveted grapes. Obviously making a low-end wine would be the best use, but if nothing can be salvaged, something else As it seems such a shame to see the fruit simply being dropped to rot on the ground.
Smart vineyards are covered by insurance.
Rates have skyrocketed since the fires of a couple of years back. And they will go up again.
So have insurance premiums everywhere else.
Yep. The insurance market only works if the insurer can avoid correlated risk. I wouldn’t be surprised to see most insurers exit this market at any price.
Either exit or add exclusions to their policies.
Here’s an article looking at the 2017 smoke problem. Lots of issues to think about if you’re a vineyard owner.
Wes was it this post by Stewart Johnson in the 2020 West Coast Weather and Farming thread?
https://wineimport.discoursehosting.net/t/aubert-allocation-to-share/795/1