As raging bushfires tore through Queensland's Granite Belt in 2019, Mike Hayes could do little but watch as crops at his beloved vineyards were ruined by smoke.
Smoke taint is disastrous for a vintage, if not immediately evident, he explains: "Once you put it in a bottle, about eight months later it tastes like the smell of an ashtray."
The winemaker from the southern Queensland region that borders New South Wales has been working in vineyards all his life.
