Kobus van Ierop gets depressed at the increasingly apparent effect of fires
on some vines and wines

What an extreme season for our vines!

First we had a fairly wet winter, then huge growth on the vines, and for the last three months not a drop of rain in some areas. The vines were so happy after winter and an early summer which was mild and quite gentle – and then came this heat.

Unirrigated areas are suffering badly and some vines are yellowing their leaves even before the grapes have properly gone through veraison – acquiring their colour, starting to soften. Farmers that have water should be OK, but as one of my learned colleagues remarked on Saturday: ‘The acids might look good, the sugar levels too – but damn, there are just no flavours left after the heat!’ He was talking about sauvignon blanc specifically, in the so-called hotter areas.

And then of course the fire destroyed some too.

I tasted some white grapes last week coming off vines growing in the smoke belt during the fires. I have never tasted something that bad and depressing. Imagine standing next to a fire that was smouldering early morning and then wetted – that strange ashtray-like odour. According to some experienced Australians, the smell does not disappear at all, though local winemakers say that sometimes it can be worked away in the cellar. But what about the red grapes which will have more skin contact? The smell, as far as we know, penetrates the waxy layer on the berries. Some farmers tried washing the grapes with water, stripping the leaves before, doing whole bunch pressing and only using the free run juice, but without success so far.

It’s not only the smoky flavour which seems to be the problem – the juice actually tastes like nothing: no varietal flavours or tastes comes forward. Juice made from vines that last year made a lovely, aromatic, cultivar-specific wine ... after this year’s fire (and the vines were not burnt, they were just covered in smoke) it tastes like nothing.

What about next year? Fires seem to be part of our lives in the Western Cape these days. Can we really suffer these losses not only in the vineyards itself but also in trying to sell smoke-tainted or just plain below standard wine?