Smoke effects

Ben Canaider in this article in The Age discusses the disastrous effects of smoke on some vineyards in Victoria last vintage. He quotes Graeme Ray of the Boggy Creek Vineyards in the King Valley who will not be releasing any wine for the 2007 Vintage.

“Midway through December, after the Whitfield fires, we thought that we had a problem; that the smoke was going to heavily affect the grape skins and their flavour. Then, in January, when the Tatong fires came to within 200 metres of the vineyard, we knew the grapes were gone. There was just too much smoke.”

The Australian Wine Research Institute is conducting research into the problem, including how to assess grapes at picking to determine the level of contamination and what can be done to remove the off flavours. At present some heavy handed methods can be used to remove the smoke taint, the problem is these methods also remove most of the flavour of the wine.

Boggy Creek, along with many other wineries who have skipped the 2007 vintage are hoping for better luck next year.