Impact of functional spray coatings on smoke volatile phenol compounds and Pinot noir grape growth

The frequency and intensity of wildfires have been increasing over the last 50 years and negatively impacted the wine industry. Previous methods of smoke mitigation during grape processing have shown little impact in reducing smoke taint in wines. Therefore, a novel method of using edible spray coatings for vineyard application was developed to help prevent volatile smoke phenol uptake in wine grapes. Four cellulose nanofiber-based coating suspensions incorporated with chitosan and/or β-cyclodextrin were evaluated. Films derived from the coating suspensions were exposed to volatile phenols found in wildfire smoke (guaiacol, 4-methyl guaiacol, m-cresol, o-cresol, p-cresol, syringol, and 4-methyl syringol) and evaluated with ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy where the results indicated that the coatings could uptake smoke phenols in varying degrees. The coatings were also applied in a vineyard at three different application times during grape growth: pea-sized, pre-bunch closure, and both at pea-sized and pre-bunch closure. The results showed that the application time did not have a significant (p < 0.05) effect on berry size, weight, °Brix, pH, or titratable acidity. The type of coating, time of application and washing were found to impact the number of volatile phenols in the grapes after a smoke event. Results from this study indicated that edible coatings could help mitigate smoke uptake in wine grapes without sacrificing the growth and key composition parameters of wine grapes. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: This research provides a novel spray coating that can be applied to wine grapes in the vineyard to potentially mitigate volatile smoke compounds in wine grapes without impacting fruit growth and key compositional parameters of wine grapes, thus maintaining high quality of wines for consumers. Results from this study can also be potentially applied to other agricultural commodities to solve the issues caused by the wildfire smoke.