The five-hectare expanse of Frank Baldasso’s destroyed Viognier vines looks, from any distance, as green as the rest. Come closer and you notice that the fruit is withered, and the undersides of the vines are brown.
The grapes taste like smoke.
Frank was alone on Saturday morning, defending his shed on the western side of the property, when the Sampson Flat fire came roaring over the hill in front of him.
Country Fire Service volunteers managed to keep the flames from jumping the road separating his Kenton Valley property from his neighbour’s.
But the wind was erratic, and the fire was approaching the property, at pace, from every direction.
“When I saw the fire coming up at the front there, I thought I’m a goner because it just came up so fast,” he says.
He says that CFS volunteers advised him to evacuate, but that he should be alright if he chose to stay.
He stayed on the property to save his shed and the vital, expensive equipment within.
By the time his wife called to tell him to make a run for it, he was trapped.
“It was really frightening because you’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“I couldn’t get out. I had fire all around me.
“It’s just a matter of minutes. It was travelling so fast.
“Lucky I had a mask. Really black smoke. The sun, you could hardly see it.”
Frank was surrounded.
“My neighbour came around and he said: ‘Frank, your vineyard’s on fire’.
“I was concentrating on my shed … keeping that watered down. I had the other sprinklers going on my orchard; it just happened so quickly.
“It must have been some sparks through the air. The back caught fire and that was it. It was too late by that time. I couldn’t have done anything, anyway.”
Frank and his neighbour raced to the Viognier East plot to find it impossible to defend.
“It was just too hot,” he says.
They couldn’t stop the inferno, but they could prevent it from spreading further.
When InDaily visited the property, there remained a line of blackened grass in front of the next plot of vines. Small parts on its edge are affected by the fire, but the pair managed to hold the line, and save the vast majority of the crop.
“If I didn’t stay it would have been gone; the whole lot.”
“I said to myself: the grapes are gone, thank God I’m still here.”
Fourteen years ago, Frank planted the vines as a retirement hobby. His Protero label quickly became respected for its quality.
Now, 25 per cent of his vines are gone.
“I’ve got to rip (them) out,” he says.
“It’s a shame. I planted them back in 2000. They had a beautiful crop on them.
“The insurance won’t pay for the grapes – not for the fruit and the wine itself.”
“I had to have my mask. Without the mask I would have died.”
Frank doesn’t dare to speculate about how much money he has lost, or how much time it will take to recover.
But he says there is no option for him other than to stay strong and to keep going.
“I said to myself: the grapes are gone, thank god I’m still here. Otherwise you fall apart. And that’s the last thing I want to do. That would be the end of it. I’m the only one that can keep (the business) going.
“What can you do? There’s nothing else I can do. I’m just thinking it could’ve been a lot worse.
“I’ve got to be thankful that at least I’ve got something left.”
– Images: Nat Rogers / InDaily
