Beating smoke taint with sparkling wine

Project details

Status: Current

This climate change adaptation project will investigate producing sparkling wine from smoke-affected wine grapes as a mitigation strategy. The outputs will provide winemakers with the knowledge to help them develop risk management strategies against the impacts of climate change.

High cost to industry

Smoke-affected fruit is a significant cost to the wine grape sector. This could also include years of sunk investment into ageing of fine wines. It is a risk that deters investors and future expansion.

Smoke-affected fruit leads to negative sensory outcomes which manifests during wine making and ageing. This means significant financial outlay has already been invested with little chance for return, as smoke-affected wines will be destroyed and unable to be sold.

Current approach

The primary focus of this project is on climate-responsive agriculture to reduce financial and reputational risks.
Current options for remediation have focused on removing smoke-taint compounds using activated carbon, but these methods have also stripped out important flavour and aroma compounds.

Alternative approaches for adaptation to the ever-increasing risk and reality of smoke taint from bushfires without adversely affecting wine flavour and aroma is considered critical for the Tasmanian wine industry where the value-proposition is premium quality.

Impact for Tasmanian wine

Tasmanian wine agribusinesses produce the highest quality sparkling wine in Australia. These businesses are best placed to adopt and demonstrate the knowledge which would be gained from this project.

There is also the potential for international impact as more regions globally become impacted by smoke taint from bushfires because of climate change.