THE VINTAGE FROM HELL
THERE were six words in all, only six. But in the powerful West Australian Newspaper morning daily headline, they said it all: The Swan Valley’s vintage from hell. It thundered as the vicious fire burnt up more than 10,000 hectare of land, 86 houses, numerous outer buildings, fences, gates, livestock, pets and wildlife on its terrible path to being one of the worst natural disasters to smash the region. Stunned local wine and table grapegrowers including winemaker James Talijancich, who with wife Hilda and parents Peter and Mary were evacuated, said they had never seen anything like it in a lifetime in the valley.
James revealed seeing thousands upon thousands of flying red embers – like stars in the night – against the black background of the nearby Darling Ranges along with huge black clouds to the east and north showing where the fire may have started.
At one stage it was estimated burning bits of Australian bush were said to be more than three kilometres ahead of the fire’s face, the wind fanning the searing heat leaving behind devastation that some referred to as a ‘war zone.’ At one stage, the fire was estimated to have had a perimeter of 122km with exhausted fire-fighters and volunteers doing all they could in the difficult battle.
Swan Valley industry leader John Griffiths said he was picking grapes on his vineyard when it was shrouded in smoke. With the help of the WA Agriculture Department unpicked berry samples were sent to the Australian Wine Research Institute for analysis.
“You either sent a sample of grapes or a dry wine for smoke taint – but we sent both,” he said. John described smoke taint as a bit like volatile acidity in wine.
“You get to a point where it is noticeable, to becoming unpleasant, like a dirty ashtray,” he said.
LIVING IN INTERESTING TIMES
TO borrow from a popular Chinese saying, one of Australia’s biggest wine companies, Treasury Wine Estates, has been living in interesting times. As the country’s largest exporter of branded wines, it has been badly affected by the protracted trade war between Australia and China. In February, it announced a 43% drop in profits for the first half year, a reflection of the 212% import tariffs China levied on Australian wine imports.
In response, the company, like other Australian exporters, says it is working to open up new markets in Asia and is reinvigorating export efforts in the US and the UK.
The company also had to deal with persistent rumours that it planned to sell off its jewel in the crown, Penfolds wines. The Fairfax media in February reported that TWE had cancelled a potential demerger and the move was no longer in contention with the company unveiling plans to split its business into three divisions: Penfolds, Treasury Premium Brands and Treasury Americas. It also reported that TWE would be selling off some of its US assets with the hope of recouping around $300 million.
Treasury Wine Estates chief executive, Tim Ford, was quoted as saying: “That’s how we’re going to run the business for the foreseeable future, and we’ve stopped any work on demerger options.”
TOUGHING IT OUT
IT’S been a tough 12 months for Victorian winemakers with the loss of tourism, wine sales and an important export market, but in the lead up to the 2021 vintage one cool climate wine region was fearful of losing its entire crop due to smoke taint. And it wasn’t smoke taint from bushfires but rather controlled burns in the region by the Victorian state government.
With grapes just weeks away from picking, Forest
