Bushfire smoke in vineyards can spell disaster for winemakers, as smoky, ashy characters in grapes can render wine unsaleable, leading to significant revenue losses.

At Compolytics, in collaboration with The University of Adelaide and key industry partners from the Australian and US wine industries, we’re taking our mission to safeguard grape and wine quality to the next level. Our goal: to develop a multispectral handheld sensor that predicts the severity of smoke taint in real time, reducing reliance on costly, time-consuming lab testing.

This season, we’ve expanded our work with a second extensive smoke treatment series, targeting a broader range of white and red grape varieties, and smoke exposure at different stages of fruit maturity. By building on the rich spectral dataset we collected last year, this year’s data will play a pivotal role in validating our models and fine-tuning sensor development.

Together, we’re pushing the boundaries of real-time analysis to protect the future of winemaking. Stay tuned as we advance the COMPOLYTICS^® scancor.de/r^® platform for this vital industry challenge!