Will Australian wine be latest casualty of devastating bush fires?

Grapes can’t be checked for ‘smoke taint’, which causes them to develop unpalatable flavours or smells like ash or wet cigar, until they start to ripen

While most vineyards escaped direct fire damage, some growers are anxious about their grapes’ exposure to the choking smoke which has blanketed many rural areas

Reading Time:2 minutes

A view of Tomich Winery in Adelaide Hills following a bush fire last month. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:52pm, 22 Jan 2020Updated: 9:40pm, 22 Jan 2020

The devastating wildfires that swept through the east and south of Australia in recent months could have yet another consequence – spoiling some of the 2020 wine vintage in a country that counts China, the US and Britain among its biggest customers.

While most vineyards escaped direct damage from the inferno that claimed almost 30 lives and destroyed more than 2,700 homes, some growers are anxious to see if grapes have been contaminated by direct exposure to the choking smoke which has blanketed many rural areas as well as major cities.

The fires destroyed swathes of vines in the Adelaide Hills and pockets of production in New South Wales and Victoria, but the affected area represents just 1 per cent of the country’s vineyards, said Tony Battaglene, CEO of industry group Australian Grape and Wine. Major inland growing areas along the Murray River and in Western Australia have been unaffected, he said.

“The bigger impact is the potential for smoke damage,” he said. But the so-called smoke taint, where grapes develop unpalatable flavours or smells like ash or wet cigar, is hard to measure, and grapes can’t be checked until they start to ripen, which will happen in the coming weeks.

Wildfire smoke has hurt some previous Australian vintages and become a bigger issue in places like California, Oregon and parts of Canada and South Africa in the past decade. Australia’s La Trobe University is developing early detection tools to help growers assess the damage.