Mixed bag for wine and cider vintage as smoke damage sets in

Cabonne councillor Ian Davison raised the issue at a recent council meeting, saying the industry would take "a real body blow" this year due to smoke taint and little wine would be made.

"There's only one or two people the I know of trying to make some wine," he said.

"We tried to make some wine from our old place the other day in a small bucket ferment and it tasted like an ashtray, it was awful."

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Cr Davison, who lives at Borenore, said he would not make any wine this year and suggested an increase to Cabonne Council's tourism budget to ease the pressure on the industry.

"We have to think of the employment of pickers and people who come during the season - that money won't be here either," he said.

At the other end of the spectrum, Colmar Estate is set to have a largely normal harvest and production season after all six of its grape varieties tested negative in the lab for the smoke compounds which are known to affect the wine.

Owner Bill Schrapnel said the pinot noir was the only variety to exhibit smoke characteristics after a trial fermentation, also known as bucket fermentation.

"At this stage we won't make a pinot red wine, but we might make a rose," he said.

"But really five out of six varieties are looking good and we're confident in the quality of the white wines we'll make."

Mr Schrapnel said 7.5 tonnes of chardonnay were picked on one February day alone.

Vignerons have been testing their grape varieties for smoke taint after Orange experienced weeks of smoke haze late last year from fires near Mudgee and Lithgow.

Other prominent Orange vignerons declined to comment due to concern about the impact on tourism.

Some remained uncertain about what they would make into wine, while one confirmed they would not pick pinot noir at all.

Orange Region Vignerons Association president Nicole Samodol emphasised the damage had not affected any particular variety or altitude.

"A lot of the commercial players will be making something because they can buy fruit from different locations - they're not relying on one vineyard," she said.

She said smaller vineyards might still be able to sell fruit to other wine regions with worse smoke damage, but ORVA would know the full impact on the harvest at the end of the financial year because membership was charged based on yield.

With 2016-2019 vintages still available from the cellar doors, Ms Samodol emphasised there would be plenty of quality wine to buy, even with a smaller 2020 vintage.

"Some will have enough stores to see them through," she said.