North-East Victoria vineyard smoke sensor network

North-East Victoria is one of the most bushfire-prone wine regions in Australia and was impacted greatly by the bushfires of 2019-20. Although direct fire damage to vineyards was low, smoke damage to fruit across all five regions resulted in thousands of tonnes of grapes being lost or downgraded in quality, with an estimated $140 million lost to grape and wine businesses in the region.

The five wine regions (Alpine Valleys, Beechworth, Glenrowan, King Valley and Rutherglen) responded with formation of the North-East Wine Zone (NEWZ), to facilitate a collaborative and shared strategic view of the industry. Wines of the King Valley made a successful application to the Victorian Government’s Local Economic Recovery program for a collaborative project with La Trobe University, Wine Australia and NEWZ to establish a network of dedicated wine industry smoke sensors in NE Victoria. The proposal attracted significant support from local government councils, Wine Victoria, Australian Grape & Wine and the member associations of NEWZ, which represent 110 grape growing and winemaking businesses in the region.

The project built on previous and current work of La Trobe University (LTU 1601, LTU 1901, LTU 2001), which established close correlations between smoke measurements, grape and wine chemistry and sensory outcomes in wine. Further, this work showed that smoke measurements taking in close proximity to an exposed vineyard can provide an early indication of risk of smoke damage to grapes and wine, and resulted in the development of prototype Wine Industry Smoke Detector units (WISDs).

The project achieved the following:

• Established a world-first regional network of 100 WISDs throughout vineyards in NE Victoria to provide continuous, real time “smoke dosage” data.
• Generated new data from smoke events to further refine a model which will, with a high level of accuracy, be able to predict the risk of smoke taint based on the smoke dosage the grapes received.
• Developed a fully accessible internet dashboard and smartphone app that will provide growers with real time information to inform risk of smoke taint through a traffic light system, across eight key winegrape varieties.
• Showed how early information on smoke taint risk, provided by the network of sensors, can inform critical downstream business decisions including grape testing, vineyard management, and winemaking strategies to manage smoke effects.
• Provided a blueprint for deployment of a smoke early warning system in wine regions across the rest of Australia and internationally.

The WISD network is a predictive real-time instrument that enables timely, grape varietal-specific, on-farm decision making by grape growers and winemakers to manage the effects of smoke from any fire event. It is a vital tool in supporting the long-term viability of Australian grape and wine businesses in the face of increasing bushfire risk into the future.

Objectives

This aim of this project is to deliver an early warning network of smoke sensors that assesses vineyard exposure to smoke in North-East Victoria. The network of 100 sensor stations will record, analyse and report the exposure of wine grapes to individual smoke events and accumulated seasonal smoke exposure. An electronic dashboard will provide information back to producers and inform critical downstream business decisions including grape testing, vineyard management and winemaking strategies to manage smoke effects. The network is designed to be scaled to support other regions across the state and has the potential to be deployed nationally and exported.

Approach

The project will:

• Establish and validate a region-wide network of 100 smoke sensors throughout vineyards in North-East Victoria that will provide real time ‘smoke dosage’ data.
• Combine data from new sensors with that collected in previous fire years, to further refine a model that will – with a high level of accuracy – be able to predict the risk of smoke taint based on the smoke dosage the grapes received.
• Develop a fully accessible internet dashboard and smartphone app that will provide growers with real time information to inform risk of smoke taint through a traffic light system across a large range of different grape varieties.
• Provide generic guidance to support business decisions based on information provided by the network of sensors. • Provide a blueprint for deployment of a smoke early warning system in wine regions across the rest of Australia and internationally.

Sector benefits

This project will deliver a suite of tools to support the long-term viability of grape and wine businesses in the face of increasing bushfire risk into the future. It will provide a predictive real-time instrument that enables timely, grape varietal-specific, on-farm decision making by grapegrowers and winemakers to manage the effects of bushfire smoke.