(Eurekalert) - Wine producers and grape growers have a new, powerful tool at their disposal to help manage the impact of grapes exposed to smoke from forest fires.

Researchers from UBC's Okanagan campus have devised a new analytical test to precisely and accurately measure the amount of volatile phenols-compounds absorbed by grapes when exposed to smoke that can impact wine flavour-that are present in the fruit prior to wine production.

"Until now, detecting these smoky compounds in grapes required fermenting a small sample over at least ten days and relying on subjective measures like taste and odour," says Wesley Zandberg, assistant professor of chemistry at UBC's Okanagan campus. "We've developed a test that detects the exact amount of volatile phenols present in the grape. There's no need to ferment them first and we get results within a matter of hours."