Scientists unveil game-changing 'wizard' technology to detect hidden threats in grapes: 'The Holy Grail of research'

Step aside, Dumbledore and Gandalf. Australian scientists are employing new technological gadgets nicknamed "wizards" to create a little bit of magic in saving good wine from going to waste.

A team from La Trobe University unveiled their Wine Industry Smoke Detectors (aka wizards) that are a decade in the making. In a news release, the scientists said the wizards have the potential to save winemakers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Research began 10 years ago on the wizards as well as their algorithm and risk models. The 2020 Australian bushfires provided a prime test opportunity. After the trials, the researchers found that winemakers were needlessly throwing out a huge amount of grapes.

"Growers think that all smoke causes smoke taint, but data collected by our team has for the first time globally linked the amount of fresh smoke needed in vineyards to smoke taint in the bottle," researcher Ian Porter said. "This has been the Holy Grail of research that's now being solved."

The team's work has taken on extra importance as the Grampians winemaking region is reeling after a weeks-long brushfire, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The wizards' sensors work by tapping into data that mimics how we monitor air quality. A risk rating is calculated while accounting for factors like smoke composition and phenol levels in grapes. It also incorporates distance to burns, local conditions, grapevine variety, and the timing of fire events.

The overall smoke taint then goes to growers in real time. Porter says it "could save a heap of grapes [growers] would usually throw away, which can be financially and emotionally devastating."

In the case of prescribed burns' use in fire management, that's pivotal. Porter noted that controlled burns rarely taint grapes and that the wizards are an "extremely valuable tool to use during any smoke event to determine whether there is a problem or not."

"Having results in real time greatly reduces stress for growers and winemakers and allows them to market their grapes and produce wine with confidence," he concluded.

Wine production worldwide is in need of proactive solutions as it faces growing threats. Rising temperatures threaten areas in Europe, moving winemaking further north. English winemakers also navigated their own troubles following a particularly hostile harvest season.

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America is another region where concerns about fires are mounting, since 2017 began a trend of destructive wildfires hitting winemaking regions nationwide, as Wildfire Today detailed. 

The wizards can save growers from overreacting to these fire events, as well as prescribed burns. An Australian company, Goanna Ag, is commercializing the tech over the next two years, and they will refine the tech and bring it to other parts of Australia. 

Goanna Ag Winegrape business development lead Jock Ferguson envisions wizards going even further.

"They are a vital industry breakthrough with appeal to stakeholders throughout the grape and wine sector in Australia as well as winegrowing regions around the world," Ferguson said.

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