Making Better Beer and Wine with Data and Machine Learning

Bushfires in Australia are as commonplace as kangaroos and koalas. A hot, dry climate regularly sets the stage for conflagrations that endanger human lives, property, and wildlife and threaten one of the country's top economic industries: wine. Fires during summer 2019–2020 decimated entire vineyards in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, but smoke, which was far more widespread and insidious, seeped into grapes and into fermenting barrels, yielding unpleasant, unsaleable product. Although the full extent of the damage caused has not yet been calculated, analysis from the Australian Wine Research Institute indicates that smoke taint alone costs the country's wine industry tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each time a high fire season occurs. Advances in a wide range of technologies could help growers and winemakers mitigate the negative impact of smoke taint and other unpredictable anomalies, such as frost, drought, pests, and disease -- and not just in Australia, but around the world.