Australian Bushfires: many Victorian wineries are at risk
It is a human tragedy with more than 150 people dead, countless animals, houses, properties and therefore also vineyards lost to a series of fires, of which many believed to have been lit by arsonists. With the main damages currently happening in Victoria, I fear the worst for the wineries around Melbourne. Daily temperatures above 45 degrees and searing winds helped the fires spread fast across the state.
Bushfire wines
Parts of the Yarra Valley, Heathcote and Gippsland are still burning. Some wine regions such as one of my favourites, the Beechworth region are under immediate threat. The first reports now come through about the wineries affected: in the Yarra Valley the Roundstone winery and restaurant was burnt to the ground, and other Yarra wineries including Punt Road, Domaine Chandon and Lance Family Vineyards were partially damaged. These are the first vineyards that were directly damaged by the fires.
But the real damages will be discovered in the weeks to come. Let us have a look into the 2003 fires, that caused serious damage in Victoria: it became evident that few vineyards were actually damaged by the fires then, but damage caused by smoke taint was widespread. And as Australian viticulture continues to spread into locations that might be considered as more bushfire-prone than many established grape growing areas, there is a possibility that smoke taint might become a sporadic but more common occurrence in the future. The fact is, that you can protect yourself to a certain extent against a fire hitting your property or home, but you have no chance against the smoke.
The University of Adelaide has just started a project to counter wines produced in smoke-affected areas. The $500,000 project intends to support the wine industry in ‘finding grape and wine production methods which minimise the uptake of smoke by vines or the extraction of smoke-derived aroma compounds during winemaking’. Unfortunately for most wineries based in these areas currently fighting the bushfires, the results of this project come too late.
It is a sad day for Australia.
________________________________________________________________________
Weltweit schauen Menschen entsetzt auf das moerderische Schauspiel der tobenden Flammen, die derzeit weite Teile Victorias heimsuchen. Im Yarra Valley, in den Regionen Heathcote und Gippsland und ganz akut in der Beechworth Region fegen Feuerstuerme ueber alles hinweg, was sich nicht in Sicherheit bringen kann. Die Folgen sind verheerend, denn selbst wenn die eigene Winery von den Flammen verschont wird, so bleiben meist Folgeschaeden durch Rauch und Russ. Unsere Gedanken sind bei den Familien, die Angehoerige verloren haben, deren Hab und Gut in Brand aufgingen und letztlich auch bei den Winzern, die hiermit entweder ihre Ernte oder gar ihr Lebenswerk verlieren.
Ihr Michael Brecht
Hat Ihnen dieser Blogeintrag gefallen? Wir freuen uns über Ihren Kommentar. or Abonnieren Sie den downunderwines.net-RSS-Feed und sind immer informiert.
[...] have seen many reports about the bushfires here down under that devastated large areas of rural Victoria in the past weeks. Many wine regions [...]