According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, wildfires burn more land in western US states than eastern. It’s why JFW is funding one Washington professor’s research into smoke taint solutions. In 2020 alone, a study by Downey Brand, LLP noted that California lost US$601 million in unharvested wine grapes due to smoke taint. One professor in Washington state aims to find a solution to vineyard smoke taint damage, and a new endowment by Jackson Family Wines is helping him to do just that. Recently, Jackson Family Wines donated US$300,000 to create the Jackson Family Wines Endowed Professorship at Washington State University’s (WSU) Department of Viticulture & Enology (V&E). The funds support the research of Dr. Tom Collins, an industry leader in wine grape smoke taint research. “We have worked with the technical team at Jackson Family over the years on various topics, including most recently on aspects of research related to how smoke exposure in vineyards can impact grape and wine quality,” says Collins. “This endowment is one of the outcomes from that collaboration, and is intended to facilitate future work in this area of research.” Doing the Work The endowment grew out of a discussion in 2022 between Collins and Jackson Family Wines (JFW) about his work developing techniques in identifying new, smoke-related compounds in grapes and wines. In a bid to advance this research, Collins requested access to JFW’s specialised instrumentation equipment. This led to further discussions about shared costs for supplies and student travel, culminating in the
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine