Re: Any 2015 Vintage Progress Reports?
Posted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:58 am
First confirmed report of smoke taint in the media - that possibily was brought up in the Adelaide Hills fires thread back in January:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14384
Grape growers, Rosemary and Frank Baldasso, lose $200,000 vintage to smoke taint after Sampson Flat fires
ABC News
31 March 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-31/c ... atenews_sa
A husband and wife team who grow grapes in the Adelaide Hills have lost a $200,000 vintage after their grapes tested positive for "smoke taint".
Rosemary and Frank Baldasso's Gumeracha property survived the Sampson Flat bushfire, but testing by the Australian Wine Research Institute has confirmed the smoke has damaged their grapes and they cannot be sold.
She said her business would make no money from the last season and many other growers in the region were in the same boat.
"Every grower of grapes or produce, especially the wine grape in our local vicinity, if their grapes were covered in that acrid smoke for any length of time unfortunately they are all gone," Ms Baldasso said.
The effect of smoke taint on grapes is found during the fermenting process, she explained.
"What I've been told what happens is the leaves and the berries and the plants absorb the smoke compounds if they are sitting in smoke long enough, then eventually when they're fermented, the sugars release those compounds into the fermented liquid," Ms Baldasso said.
"Once those compounds are released into the juice, that juice becomes tainted with those smoke compounds, so to give you a very simple example, if you taste that juice, it tastes like a stale ashtray."
The Baldassos are fortunate to also have an apple orchard on their property, which will help them see through the next 12 months.
But Ms Baldasso said it would be a struggle.
"Fortunately for us, unlike others who have lost everything and don't have a back up, we have a little apple orchard, that is going to help sustain us," she said.
"It's not going to be the entire answer, but it will help to sustain us."
Ms Baldasso said the apples could still be sold and eaten without being affected by the smoke, because the apples would not be fermented and used to produce alcoholic cider.
She has been filling in the necessary paperwork to apply for compensation offered by the Government, but was unsure whether she would qualify.
"It's a waiting game, wait and see if there is any assistance available, because I fully understand that people who lost everything have to have first priority. I don't have an issue with that," Ms Baldasso said.
"And with us, we do have some income coming in, it may not be enough to cover all our costs for the next 12 months, but look, we put our head down, you work, you go through it.
"We're not the only ones, a lot of people out there have been hit harder than we have and my heart goes out to them, and in our case, we are fortunate enough to have other produce on the property that helps us to see through another 12 months, albeit under very difficult circumstances."
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14384
Grape growers, Rosemary and Frank Baldasso, lose $200,000 vintage to smoke taint after Sampson Flat fires
ABC News
31 March 2015
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-31/c ... atenews_sa
A husband and wife team who grow grapes in the Adelaide Hills have lost a $200,000 vintage after their grapes tested positive for "smoke taint".
Rosemary and Frank Baldasso's Gumeracha property survived the Sampson Flat bushfire, but testing by the Australian Wine Research Institute has confirmed the smoke has damaged their grapes and they cannot be sold.
She said her business would make no money from the last season and many other growers in the region were in the same boat.
"Every grower of grapes or produce, especially the wine grape in our local vicinity, if their grapes were covered in that acrid smoke for any length of time unfortunately they are all gone," Ms Baldasso said.
The effect of smoke taint on grapes is found during the fermenting process, she explained.
"What I've been told what happens is the leaves and the berries and the plants absorb the smoke compounds if they are sitting in smoke long enough, then eventually when they're fermented, the sugars release those compounds into the fermented liquid," Ms Baldasso said.
"Once those compounds are released into the juice, that juice becomes tainted with those smoke compounds, so to give you a very simple example, if you taste that juice, it tastes like a stale ashtray."
The Baldassos are fortunate to also have an apple orchard on their property, which will help them see through the next 12 months.
But Ms Baldasso said it would be a struggle.
"Fortunately for us, unlike others who have lost everything and don't have a back up, we have a little apple orchard, that is going to help sustain us," she said.
"It's not going to be the entire answer, but it will help to sustain us."
Ms Baldasso said the apples could still be sold and eaten without being affected by the smoke, because the apples would not be fermented and used to produce alcoholic cider.
She has been filling in the necessary paperwork to apply for compensation offered by the Government, but was unsure whether she would qualify.
"It's a waiting game, wait and see if there is any assistance available, because I fully understand that people who lost everything have to have first priority. I don't have an issue with that," Ms Baldasso said.
"And with us, we do have some income coming in, it may not be enough to cover all our costs for the next 12 months, but look, we put our head down, you work, you go through it.
"We're not the only ones, a lot of people out there have been hit harder than we have and my heart goes out to them, and in our case, we are fortunate enough to have other produce on the property that helps us to see through another 12 months, albeit under very difficult circumstances."