Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) and Wine Tasmania have banded together to address the problem of smoke-taint in vineyards during the bushfire season.
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At a forum held at Frogmore Creek Wines in the Coal River Valley, industry leaders squinted in the overbearing glare of the sun.
Wine Tasmania chief executive Sheralee Davies outlined the issue.
“Smoke can actually enter the leaves of the vines in the vineyards themselves, and then adhere to the sugars that grow in the berries,” Ms Davies said.
“And as the berry ripens, the sugars themselves actually increase and so smoke can bind itself to those compounds.
“Then, when we harvest the grapes, and make them into wine, those compounds can be released and what it can do is create unpalatable wines.”
TFS Fuel Reduction Unit manager Sandra Whight said grape-growing regions were particularly prone to bushfires.
“If you think about places in the Derwent Valley, the Coal River Valley and the Tamar Valley, these places also happen to be where some of our most highly-flammable fuels are,” Ms Whight said.
“If we can have good mitigation strategies in place ahead of time, then we can really minimise the consequences.”
Meadowbank Vineyard managing director Gerald Ellis knows all about such consequences.
His vineyard was tainted by smoke in the 2012 Derwent Valley fires.
“We only get one cheque a year from selling our fruit, or making the wine, and so if you lose a whole year it’s just like having no wages for a whole year.”
Mr Ellis said the community needed to be aware of the dangers fires pose to winemakers.
In 2016, bushfires ravaged Tasmania’s Wilderness World Heritage Area (WWHA).
Smoke from the fires drifted to the Tamar Valley, where a multitude of vineyards were located.
The WWHA fires did not cause smoke-taint in Northern Tasmanian vineyards, but Ms Davies stressed they had the potential to do so.