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Background
This project was funded by Wine Australia as part of emergency funding provided in response to the catastrophic bushfires which occurred in Southeast Australia in 2020.
Approach
Samples of grapes subjected to different smoke densities during the 2020 bushfires in southeastern Australia were sent to two commercial laboratories and a research laboratory for comparison of the data to assist with future interpretation of smoke taint in wine. Six key phenolic compounds or their associated isomers, were tested in both the free and bound form. All laboratories used gas chromatography to analyse the free compounds and either Gas Chromatography (Vintessential Laboratories and La Trobe University) or Liquid Chromatography (AWRI Commercial Services) to analyse the bound compounds.
Sector benefits
Information from this report linked with sensory studies conducted with industry should help support the development of smoke taint thresholds which can assist with interpretation of testing results in the future.
