SMOKE over Beechworth from fuel reduction burns has raised concerns about wine taint at two local boutique vineyards.
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Pennyweight Winery and Sorrenberg Vineyard owners says the “severe pall of smoke” over their vines on Friday and Saturday during the Beechworth Gorge burn could ruin their red grape harvest.
“On Friday it was dreadful; it was the same as the 2003 bushfires and that’s when we lost our crop,” owner of Pennyweight Winery Elizabeth Morris said.
The tainting mainly affects red varieties due to the skin being left on during processing.
“With white you don’t leave the fruit on the skin, you run the juice off straight away but with the red you leave the fruit on the skins to get the colour and the tannin out,” Mrs Morris said.
“The compound gets into grapes through the leaves and changes the taste of the grapes.”
Grapes will be tested by the Australian Winery Research Institute in the next week, as the compound takes at least 10 days before it can be detected.
“We’ve also been told that the levels can increase. It may be a faint taint in 10 days but in another two weeks it could be a lot stronger, depending on how long the vineyard has been exposed to smoke,” Mrs Morris said.
Department of Sustainability and Environment Ovens district manager Shaun Lawlor said the department had been in contact with vignerons in the area for several years about the smoke taint issue.
“With big bushfires where the smoke lingers it definitely can create tainting but there is no evidence that fuel reduction burns create enough smoke to have tainting effects,” Mr Lawlor said.
“We notify growers through the Victorian Wine Industry Association.
“Our commitment to the association is that we will advise as soon as there’s a change, when burns are added or removed.
“It’s up to members to access that information in a timely manner.”
Mr Lawlor said the burn program could change if valid concerns were put forward.
“But in terms of the Beechworth Gorge burn, that wouldn’t have occurred,” he said.
“It was a very high priority burn, we provided information to the industry but to reschedule would have been too risky.”
Mrs Morris said their harvest would be completed within weeks.
“If the burn was to have been delayed for a couple of weeks we wouldn’t have this problem,” she said.
“This year we’re building up to a really excellent crop and then we have this problem which we think is unnecessary.”