You never forget the first time you taste a smoke-tainted wine.
About 15 years ago, I picked up a glass of 2003 Gamay from Sorrenberg vineyard in Beechworth in north-east Victoria. One of my favourite wines from a top estate and a fastidious winemaker. It smelled fine and tasted fine at first, good fruit, medium body, juicy. But then, gradually, an acrid, rasping character – like...
