Ambient Cannabis Aroma and Potential Wine Taint
Airborne wine taint occurs when undesirable flavors and aromas are introduced to wine through exogenous sources. While the occurrence of environmental smoke taint and eucalyptus terpene uptake have been identified, the impact and risk of other common outdoor odors have not been extensively investigated. With the increasing prevalence of Cannabis sativa L. farms in New York, neighboring vineyard owners have expressed concern of a possible ‘Cannabis taint’ in finished wine. This study investigated the effect on wine aroma when flowering C. sativa plants were placed directly in a Traminette (Vitis spp.) vineyard, with grapes harvested at varying proximities (0 m , 2.7 m, 16.2 m) to the C. sativa plants. The resultant vinified wines showed no significant differences in the abundance of common cannabis aroma compounds following targeted analysis using solid phase microextraction (SPME) Arrow gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS ). This suggests that white wine produced from vineyard sites neighboring C. sativa farms are unlikely to suffer from aroma uptake of known hemp compounds. Further, we determined the orthonasal aroma detection threshold of four of the most abundant odorous C. sativa compounds in white wine for the first time, which will assist winemakers with evaluating potential odor impacts in their wine.