During the devastating Australian bushfires last year, smoke hung over the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales for months, leaving vineyards to deal with not only crop losses, but smoke tainted grapes afterwards as well.

One of the region’s smallest wineries, Mira Wines, had their vintage crop all but wiped out, but the owners Kiros and Ana Alexandratos, decided to make the best of what was left, merging multiple wine varieties to create a completely new, limited edition rosé.

The Lost Vintage Rosé combines Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Muscat grapes –– something the owners had never done before –– to create a blush coloured drop with touches of strawberry, cream and watermelon.

“We spent weeks collaborating and discussing the possibility with our winemaker Dan Binet and we decided to merge all of our fruit to produce a Rosé. The minimal contact between the fruit’s skin and juice minimised the chance of a smoke tainted flavour,” said Kiros.

“We also wanted to acknowledge our local branch of the RFS Polkolbin who also rescued our property back in 2018 – we’re forever grateful, so, we’re donating 20% from every bottle to directly support them,” said Ana.

20% from the sale price of each bottle of Lost Vintage purchased will be donated to the winery’s local RFS in Pokolbin.

The smoke tainted rosé is now available for $49.95 from thelostvintage.co