Page 50 - Grapevine NovDec 2020

Around The Vineyard

smoke marker levels are. “The lab testing bottle-
neck is compounded by wildfire and smoke events
in our neighboring states. We already knew there
would be fewer wine grape tons harvested this vin-
tage. September wildfires compounded that situa-
tion in some viticultural areas on the west coast.”

Along those lines, Zapotocky adds that growers
face the risk of rejected fruit from the wineries.
“Then the grower has to try and find either a new
home or figure out if they’re going to be able to
take an insurance claim on the grapes. The ability
to file a claim is continent on if they have insurance
and what level of insurance coverage they have.
2020 is a very complicated harvest.”

Marketing Challenges for
Oregon’s 2020 Vintages

Dr. Damien Wilson,
Professor at Sonoma State
University, and inaugural
Hamel Family Chair with
the Wine Business Institute,
stressed in a telephone
interview the difficulty in
predicting the future while
still in the middle of an
on-going challenge. In his
estimation, smoke taint is only likely to become an
issue if perceptions of its existence are coupled with
press reports that it’s a problem. Most consumers
lack awareness of it being an issue for wine, so “It’s
essential to minimize references that contribute
to a perception of any 2020 wine as ‘smokey’ or
fire-affected.” Accordingly, practices aimed at pre-
venting and/or minimizing smoke-taint in the cuvée
will be essential.

In addition to his view that doomsday predictions
on smoke-taint are likely to be overblown, Wilson
has increasing evidence that winery visitors during
this year are providing influential testimonials on
the perceived safety and intimacy of their tasting
room experiences. He recommends that small pro-
ducers can leverage such publicity to help expand
their online presence instead of being too heavily
reliant on local buyers. He states that “...[those]
producers who don’t have web pages or use social

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