The taste of the wines of California will be affected by the fire

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Firefighters protected the vineyard of Santa Rosa last week, where fires continue to wreak havoc. Fifteen farms in the region have been affected. It will take five years for the vines replanted to produce new.

Anne Caroline Desplanques

Tuesday, 17 October 2017 06:30

UPDATE
Tuesday, 17 October 2017 06:30

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The violent fire that ravages a wine industry of California for over a week are likely to affect the taste of the wine, even in the vineyards spared by the flames.

After over a week of fires, the flames continue to devour the Napa and Sonoma valleys, on the north coast of California, from where the best wines americans.

Several farms, sometimes hundreds of years old, have been totally or partially destroyed. Others are always covered with a thick cloud of smoke.

Although it does not destroy the vineyards, the smoke may well make the grapes unusable, warns David Wees, professor at the faculty of Agriculture of McGill University.

“The biggest problem, it is the fine particles that settle on the fruits and stick on the skin,” he says.

The agronomist explains that the grapes, like most fruits, are covered with a thin film of protective wax. Exposed to smoke, this wax is in charge of fine particles, which give the juice a taste of smoke or burned.

In addition to the unpleasant taste, the fine particles contain the volatile organic compounds that are potentially carcinogenic.

Red wines

The red wines are particularly at risk, because, for the produce, winemakers leave the grape skin in the fermentation tank, which is not the case for white wines or rosés, ” says Mr. Wees.

On one side, most of the harvest had been completed when the fire began in the valleys of Napa and Sonoma, there is a little more than a week.

The other, a part of the vines of cabernet and merlot, which produce mainly red wines, was still in charge of grapes, because these wines are traditionally harvested later in the day.

The north coast of California has 60 000 hectares of vineyards. Approximately 10 % of the wine production in california depends on it.

Pioneers destroyed

Among the holdings most affected, the popular vineyard Signorello Estate has been completely reduced to ashes.

The first vineyard to organic and biodynamic farming in the country, the exploitation Frey, is also in smoke, one of the oldest vineyards of Napa, White Rock, established in 1871.

The 11 000 firefighters mobilized benefited, Monday, of the weakening of the wind to narrow the homes of the most important and the most deadly. The most recent balance sheet reported 41 deaths and 223 missing.