Purfresh Wine and Tastry Collaborate to Improve Wine and Mitigate Smoke Taint Damage to Grapes

Hayward, CA – (March 29, 2022) – Purfresh Wine, an Ag-Tech company, applying ozone (O3) technology to enhance wine quality and save grapes exposed to smoke from wildfires, and Tastry, a leading sensory sciences company, are collaborating to mitigate smoke taint damage to grapes. This partnership will add value to winemakers for a more efficient, sustainable, and secure industry future. 

Purfresh Wine uses O3 technology to treat wine grapes pre-crush. At measured and monitored concentrations, O3 gas treatments improve anthocyanin levels, round tannins, and remove bacteria, mold, pesticides, and smoke taint from grape skins, prior to fermentation. The treatments improve desired characteristics in wine and remove the smoke molecules, allowing them to be processed into wine without the smoke flavors and aromas that would otherwise render a wine unsellable. Tastry then uses advanced chemistry, machine learning, and proprietary artificial intelligence to predict how successfully the treated wines will perform on the market. 

“Over the last few years, we have had the privilege of working with extraordinary winemakers in an effort to evaluate the efficacy of various methods to remediate the effects of smoke-taint,” said Katerina Axelsson, founder and CEO of Tastry. “Unlike most approaches, the Purfresh Wine solution addresses the problem in the vineyard without impacting winemaking operations and is the only solution we have evaluated that provides additional benefits to the fruit beyond a meaningful reduction in smoke-taint compounds.” 

Tastry’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform decodes both the untreated and treated wines from Purfresh Wine’s customer harvests to show winemakers the improvements made to the wines’ taste, aroma, and texture through science-based data. Tastry’s AI has demonstrated that wines treated with Purfresh Wine’s technology perform better than untreated wines in key consumer profile preference bell curve areas.

“Purfresh Wine sees Tastry as providing additional brushes of colors for winemakers to work with when it comes to assessing the quality and consumer preference aspects of wine, and overall understanding a wine’s flavor compounds and ratios,” said Purfresh Wine founder and CEO Christian DeBlasio. “Tastry takes on the role of a skilled conservator, helping to deliver works of art and to understand how consumers will perceive the treated wines. It is an ideal partnership for our aligned missions to serve the wine industry.”

To support wineries, Tastry is offering reduced pricing on all smoke marker analyses and related services.  To learn more, and to hear about how Tastry is improving outcomes with its winery clients, visit us at WiVi 2022 or contact us at hello@tastry.com. 

ABOUT PURFRESH WINE

Founded in 2020, Purfresh Wine’s O3 technology improves winemaking and wine quality and saves harvests. Our patented technology enhances fermentation to impact quality, taste, color, ripening, and stability. It also removes smoke taint caused by wildfires. For more information, visit purfreshwine.com.

ABOUT TASTRY

Tastry was founded in 2016 with the understanding that each individual palate is as complex as a fingerprint. Powered by a proprietary chemistry methodology and revolutionary AI technology, Tastry is able to track and predict consumer preferences for products even before they hit the shelves. Through online and retail technology solutions, Tastry is rapidly democratizing the process of purchasing and selling wine to help wineries grow, streamline shopping experiences, and provide consumers with their favorite wines every time.

Tastry’s patented computational blending process predicts consumer product scores with over 92% accuracy, connecting businesses to the data that powers human senses. Since its inception, Tastry technology has been applied by over 150 wineries and retail clients to transform the way they bring products to market. Learn more at tastry.com.

Save Your Grapes from Smoke Taint with Purfresh Wine

Purfresh Wine’s ozone (O3) technology helps vineyards overcome the problems caused by wildfire smoke by treating grapes pre-crush to improve fermentation, overall wine quality, and remove smoke taint.

How does O3 treatment work?

Smoke-affected grapes are sealed in a self-powered, temperature-controlled TITAN unit and treated with O3 for 22 hours. After treatment is complete, O3 quickly breaks down into oxygen (O2), without leaving residue or harming the grapes.


How does O3 remove the smoke taint molecules?

“Ozone has traditionally been used to mediate and remove smoke aromas and smoke smells in buildings, for instance, that have been subject to fire. Ozone being a very strong oxidizing agent is presumably having the same effect, and destroying those molecules on the surfaces of the grape.”

-Winemaker Ken Bernards, Porter Family Vineyards, Napa, CA, 6/1/21


Below is a graphic representing the 2021 Australian Wine Research Institute Molecules study of the flavor profiles of treated vs non-treated smoke-affected wines. Smoke tainted grapes treated at 1 part per million (red line) were able to return to their original flavor profile, demonstrating the efficacy of O3 treatment as a solution for smoke taint.

Black: Control / Target / Ideal Grape

Blue: Smoke tainted grapes not treated Red: Smoke tainted grapes, treated grapes 1 part per million

Red: Smoke tainted grapes, treated grapes 1 part per million

Here is a diagram depicting the chemical breakdown of smoke taint molecules by O3. The third oxygen molecule in O3 pairs with carbon to turn smoke taint molecules into acids, which generally dissipate during fermentation.


What is the return on investment?

Each day of O3 treatments on smoke-tainted grapes saves your winery over $80,000, and a full month of treatments could mitigate a $1.5 million loss.

Wineries that used Purfresh Wine’s system were able to process and sell significant percentages of their harvests without any major declassification or bulk sale for blending.


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