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Smoke taint

Chemical and taintSometimes recoverable

Ashtray, burnt rubber, and a long drying finish that arrives after swallowing rather than on the nose.

What causes it

Volatile phenols absorbed by the grapes from wildfire smoke, then released from their bound forms during and after fermentation.

Detection threshold

Very low, and it gets worse with time in bottle as bound precursors hydrolyse.

What you can do

Reverse osmosis with resin treatment works commercially and is out of reach at home. Short skin contact and early pressing limit what is extracted.

How to prevent it

Test the fruit before buying it in a fire year, and consider making a rose or a white from red grapes, since most of it lives in the skins.