Oregon ranks fourth in wine production in the United States, following California, Washington and New York. The state is renowned for its high-quality wines, particularly pinot noir and chardonnay, and has several distinct wine-growing regions that contribute to its reputation.
The study provides valuable insights that can help winemakers turn a challenging situation into a market opportunity by understanding and leveraging consumer preferences.
The U.S. wine industry is increasingly impacted by wildfire smoke, leading to significant economic losses, such as the estimated $3.7 billion loss from the 2020 wildfires on the West Coast of the United States. In 2021, a research team led by Oregon State University scientists in the College of Agricultural Sciences received a $7.65 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the impact of smoke on wine.
Since then, the researchers have made several key advances. They discovered a class of compounds that contribute to smoke impact in grapes. They also developed spray-on coatings for grapes that have shown promise in preventing off flavors in wines that result from contact with wildfire smoke.
A new study, published in the journal Food Research International, focuses on consumer attitudes toward smoke-impacted wine, a topic that has received very little attention. The study found that certain consumers, especially those who enjoy smokey flavors, are open to drinking smoke-impacted wines.
The study reveals that there is a potential market for smoke-impacted wines, especially among consumers who enjoy smokey flavors. This opens new avenues for winemakers to sell wines that might otherwise be considered undesirable.
For the study, OSU researchers sent smoke-impacted and non-smoke wine made from Oregon pinot noir grapes to New Zealand. They conducted the research in New Zealand, a region where winemaking has not been significantly impacted by wildfire, because they were interested in how people would respond to the wines.
The study involved 197 participants in New Zealand. The researchers identified two distinct clusters of consumers: A “smoke-liking group” of 110 participants who enjoyed the smoke-impacted wine, giving it an average liking score of 6.86 out of 9, and a “smoke-disliking group” of 87 participants who did not favor the smoke-impacted wine, with an average score of 3.26 out of 9.
For the smoke-disliking group, the introduction of labels significantly increased their liking of the smoke-impacted wines. Their average score rose from just over 3 to more than 5 on the nine-point scale when labels were added. One of the labels, which referenced wildfires with the words “Smoke Stack, experience the 2020 vintage with this unique, lightly smokey wine,” was particularly effective in improving acceptance.
The findings suggest that there is more consumer forgiveness for smokey wines than winemakers might have anticipated. This indicates that with the right approach, these wines can be successfully marketed and sold.
By finding ways to market and sell smoke-impacted wines, winemakers can reduce economic losses associated with wildfire smoke, making the industry more resilient to the increasing frequency and severity of wildfires.
Overall, the study provides valuable insights that can help winemakers turn a challenging situation into a market opportunity by understanding and leveraging consumer preferences.