Feature
A long road to recovery THE DRINKS INDUSTRY HAS HAD ITS FAIR SHARE OF THE DROUGHT, BUSHFIRES AND COVID-19 PANDEMIC. HANNAH SPARKS INTERVIEWED SEVERAL BRANDS, ASSOCIATIONS AND A RETAILER ABOUT THEIR JOURNEYS AND THE ROAD TO RECOVERY. A heavy-hearted Prue Henschke stood in a blackened Lenswood Vineyard days after the Cudlee Creek bushfire swept through and destroyed all 25 hectares - about 25 per cent of Henschke’s total grape production including some of Adelaide Hills’ oldest pinot noir sheds, machinery and equipment. “It was a devastating sight,” the longtime viticulturist said. This was not the happy start to the Christmas season Prue’s family or any of the winemakers and grape growers whose
“We hoped the smoke wouldn’t do as much damage as it did,” Clonakilla chief winemaker and CEO Tim Kirk. vineyards were caught in the fire imagined and things were only going to get worse. Fire and smoke damage would amount to a loss of about four per cent of the country’s average annual grape harvest, around 60,000
tonnes by the end of summer, according to Wine Australia’s estimates. Week after week from December through to January wineries in south-eastern Australia were blanketed by smoke from the fires. Lenswood Vineyard destroyed by bushfire.
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