Saint & Scholar have today announced the sad news that their 2020 crop has been destroyed by smoke taint.
While the vineyards did not suffer any immediate damage from the horrific bushfires that tore through the Adelaide Hills before Christmas last year, after harvesting their 2020 vintage, Head Winemaker Stephen Dew has decided not to bottle any of the affected grapes.
“Though the winery suffered no fire damage, the blanket of smoke that lingered on our vineyard has caused nightmares for our vintage,” says Dew.
“Smoke taint is a difficult thing – while you can’t see the damage immediately, smoke tainted grapes can lead to highly undesirable ‘ashtray’ flavours once we turn the grapes into wine. This makes our crop effectively worthless.”
“While this was a difficult decision to make, our main concern was to ensure Saint & Scholar produces only the highest quality wines.”
“Saint and Scholar is a relatively new brand on the market, we have worked hard and produced some great wines so far. I could never bottle anything I had concerns about in regards to the quality,” says Dew.
Fortunately, this problem is isolated to the Vintage 2020, which means that Saint & Scholar plan to be back better than ever, producing some of Australia’s finest wines in 2021.
For now though, Saint & Scholar are taking on a new venture. Like so many other businesses across South Australia, Saint & Scholar have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, their Cellar Door and Maximilian’s Restaurant have had to close indefinitely.
However, in a bid to support South Australian jobs, the team at Saint & Scholar have decided to re-tool their skill set by undertaking a joint project with Klahn Estate.
This week, Saint & Scholar will be launching its own hand sanitiser, 75% alcohol, hand-filled and labelled by Adelaide Hills locals, in a one-off community-based project.
Stephen Dew and the Klann Estate team have been working hard on this project.
“As Australia fights to stop the spread of the virus, the best advice right now is to wash and sanitise hands regularly. So, it’s great to be able to provide a vital product that is proving difficult for customers to obtain,” says Dew.
“Critically in this tough time for all of us, this project enables us to keep working going for the team.”
To celebrate the limited release of Saint & Scholar’s hand sanitiser, they will be offering a free bottle with every case purchased.
For more information and to place your order, visit the Saint & Scholar website or check out their Facebook page.
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