Wine with Meg + Mel
Wine with Meg + Mel
Mel Gilcrist, Meg Brodtmann
A Vintage Under Smoke: What the fires mean for Victorian wine
19 minutes Posted Jan 12, 2026 at 2:00 am.
Why The Fires Matter For Wine
Where The Bushfires Are Hitting
Threats To Vineyards And Stock
Smoke Taint 101
How Risk Spreads Across Regions
Predicting Vintage Impact
Testing Protocols And Thresholds
What Smoke Taint Tastes Like
Heat, Infrastructure, And Access
Crop Loss, Timing, And Weather
Tourism Shocks And Safety
Insurance Costs And Community
How To Help Victorian Producers
0:00
19:13
Download MP3
Show notes
Send us Fan Mail Bushfire season has arrived with brutal force, impacting Victorian wineries - this extra episode is to answer your questions around what this means. From Strathbogie Ranges and Yea through to watch zones near the Yarra Valley, we map the fire lines, the shifting winds, and the hard choices facing growers who are only weeks from harvest. It’s not just scorched rows and lost stock; the bigger, quieter threat is in the smoke you can’t taste on the grape but can’t ignore in the g...