Amid the many hellish images and stories that have emerged from Australia’s apocalyptic wildfire season, the fate of the country’s wine business will have come some way down the list of most observers’ concerns.
That’s only as it should be. When we are talking about the loss of human and animal life and habitats – when we are seemingly witnessing extreme predictions for a distant post-climate emergency future happening right now – fretting about the viability of a branch of the booze business can seem trivial.
As the country counts the costs of the conflagration, however, concerns about the long-term viability of what has become one of its most significant exports have come into focus. According to Wine Australia, about 1% (or 1,500 hectares) of vines were in the heart of the fire-affected zones, with the worst-hit region being the Adelaide Hills. That’s the site of some of Australia’s most exciting cooler-climate wines, and it lost as much as 30% of its vineyards, including Henschke’s renowned Lenswood vineyard, and land and buildings belonging to the cult star producer, Vinteloper.
Similar soul-searching has been taking place in California, where October’s Kincade fire burned through Sonoma County, the latest in a series of increasingly devastating wildfires to engulf California wine country. In the past two years, we’ve also seen prime vineyard land in Chile, South Africa, the south of France, Portugal, Spain and Greece go up in flames with more intensity and regularity than before.
It’s not just the expensive loss of vines and infrastructure. There are after-effects stored in any grapes that might be salvaged at vintage time, even on vines that were some distance from the frontline. Once they’ve been through the veraison process (when the grapes change colour), the closer the grapes are to being ready for harvest the more they are prone to “smoke taint”, with the absorption of smoke particles leading to flavours akin to a chemical fire in the finished wine.
This problem has been the subject of considerable research in Australia and California – although so far, it seems, the only action available is to ameliorate rather than eliminate the aromas. By allowing less contact between juice and skins, by fining and filtering, and by adding distracting flavours such as oak and tannins, you can produce a wine where the effect of the smoke taint is dialled down.
None of those options are attractive for winemakers, and many simply take the expensive decision to dump the crop. No wonder they are weighing up whether wildfires have gone beyond occupational hazard to become a threat to their viability.
For now, smoke-tainted wines are relatively rare. And, as with many symptoms of the climate emergency, there’s still just about time to act rather than merely accepting that burnt has to be the taste of the new normal.
Support the wine makers by trying these…
Henschke Giles Pinot Noir Adelaide Hills, Australia 2017 (from £31.80 vinvm.co.uk; ozwines.co.uk)
The Henschkes are best known for superlative shiraz from the Eden Valley, but, before it was badly damaged in the 2019 bushfires, their Lenswood vineyard had earned a reputation for luxuriously silky, bright red berry-fruited pinot noir.
Vinteloper If Life Gives You Lagrein Langhorne Creek, Australia 2017 (from £14.80, fieldandfawcett.co.uk; thewhiskyexchange.com)
Vinteloper’s David Bowley had his entire 30-hectare Adelaide Hills property destroyed by bushfire. Buying a bottle of this thirst-quenchingly tangy red from a plot of the north Italian variety lagrein in Langhorne Creek is a great way to help him stay in business.
Casa de Mouraz Branco Dão, Portugal 2017 (£17, highburyvintners.co.uk)
The team at Casa de Mouraz, one of the best producers in central Portugal’s Dão region, had only just harvested the grapes for this typically luminous, textured, pithy dry white before wildfire swept through its vineyards and winery in October 2017.
Mayacamas Chardonnay Mt Veeder, Napa Valley, California, USA 2017 (£55, robersonwine.com)
California has had to get used to wildfires: last year, the Kincade fire in Sonoma; in 2017, fires swept through Napa destroying buildings at Mayacamas Vineyards, but leaving vines, including those that produce one of the world’s great chardonnays, intact.
Château de Caraguilhes Corbières, France 2017 (£10.98, Waitrose)
In 50 years’ time, will winemakers still be able to produce such spicy, robust, brambly fruited reds as this from southern France’s Corbières, a region that, having already endured fire damage in 2016, lost 300 hectares of vineyard in wildfires in July last year?
Vergelegen Premium Chardonnay Stellenbosch, South Africa 2017 (from £10.89, rannochscott.co.uk; ampswinemerchants.co.uk; robertsandspeight.co.uk)
Another wildfire survivor: as much as 40% of the 300-year-old Cape estate Vergelegen was damaged in South Africa’s last big conflagration in 2017. The chardonnay from that vintage was not affected: it’s as rich yet balanced as ever.
