Wineries to Wagga's east are discovering smoke taint in their grapes ahead of harvest, with many writing off their entire 2020 crop.
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Borambola Wines managing director Tim McMullen said the winery will not harvest this year after tests showed smoke taint throughout their entire crop.
"We've written off our vintage," he said.
Mr McMullen said while Borambola's grapes still tasted sweet off the vine, during the fermentation process the binding elements would unravel, ruining the flavour.
"It tastes like an ashtray," he said.
He said most of the wineries in the Gundagai and Tumbarumba region were facing a year without a vintage, while wineries to the north and west were more likely to be unaffected.
Mr McMullen said while the cost of production for this year's crop and the missed opportunity to on-sell grapes would have a financial impact on Borambola, the main risk for wineries was running out of stock while waiting for next year's harvest.
He said Borambola was fortunate to have an overlay of stock to last the next year, which was usually built up to manage the risk of frost or hail.
However, Mr McMullen said like all farms, losing a harvest was always difficult.
"It's extremely disappointing, there's no doubt about it," he said.
Closer to Wagga, Eunonyhareenyha Wines is set to run out of cabernet sauvignon after an unexpected smoke taint discovery saw the variety written off for the year.
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Owner Jan Pollard said Eunonyhareenya grows just two varieties; tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon.
When tests showed the tempranillo was clear, she said they expected the same result from the cabernet sauvignon.
"When the results came back I couldn't believe it," she said.
Mrs Pollard said the loss of the variety would hit hard for the small operation, with cabernet sauvignon stocks already low due to the drought.
"Financially it's a disaster," she said.
She said they had already set a price for their tempranillo grapes before the extent of the smoke taint issue across the state was known, and they were therefore unable to sell their healthy grapes at a premium.
Mrs Pollard said with smoke taint affecting so many wineries it was important Australian wine drinkers could trust what they buy in the coming years, and she would be displaying the clean tempranillo result at the cellar door.
Nick Shepherd from The Wild Vine, closer to Wagga, said they were expecting test results in the next week but were "fairly confident" their grapes would be clean ahead of a mid-March harvest.