Grapegrower & Winemaker - April 2017 by Provincial Press Group

APRIL 2017

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contents features 15 41 65

APRIL 2017

Australia’s TOP 20 wineries New Zealeand’s largest wineries Trellising

COVER Calabria Family Wines has made its first appearance on the TOP 20 list of Australian wineries, ranked by sales revenue. Despite leading such a large company, Bill Calabria isn’t afraid to roll up his sleeves and help with the picking.

news

grapegrowing

From the editor .........................................7

Trellis and end-post assemblies: ..............49

What's legal and what's illegal?

Alternatives to CCA and Creosote

On the grapevine .....................................8

Revisiting vineyard scale .........................54

Movers & Shakers...................................10

Regional roundup ................................... 12 Letters to the editor .................................13 Special report: Australia’s largest wine companies........................... 15 Addressing a weed that keeps bouncing back ..............................57

Where there’s smoke... ............................58 58

Recovery mode .......................................16 Top producer rankings ............................25 NZ: Towards $2 billion by 2020 .............. 41

regulars 6 What’s online 45 R&D at Work 71 Vinehealth Australia Wine Australia for Australian Wine

Understanding costs should be as easy as ABC Adelaide-based business and engineering consultants 2XE have bought to light some valuable news for the Australian wine community’s bottom line. In a recent project, funded by Wine Australia, to undertake a life-cycle cost analysis of wine processing, it revealed the enormous potential of what is known as activity-based costing (ABC) as well as some large holes in just how much many wineries know about what their production costs actually are.

This then highlights where changes to processes could increase profits.

A tailored ABC model was prepared for each winery, showing mean costs per kilolitre (kL) of wine for activities such as bottling, barreling and maturation. The aim was to create an easy-to-use framework that could be customised to suit the needs of each and every wine business.

4 Grapegrower & Winemaker In fact, 2XE CEO Nick Palousis would go so far as to say it is ‘one of the biggest knowledge gaps we’ve seen in the sector’.

Wine Australia is now studying the project report to determine how best to progress the findings. Nick said ABC represented a different way of looking at costs and their implications. ‘Typically a winery would take its balance sheet and look at the things an accountant usually

88 Ask the AWRI 97 Calendar 98 Marketplace classifieds

help wineries target their efficiency projects towards activities that have the greatest opportunity for increasing profit. ‘For example, the total cost per kL of wine pressed is significantly different when comparing different techniques such as basket press, bag-press and screw-press’, the report says. ‘Also, the way a press is used varies the cost of production per kL. For example, a winery with a bag press using automated pressing cycles may use less labour than one that requires continual monitoring and adjustment.

‘Likewise, a winery that can schedule and separate red and white batches on different days can minimise cleaning and increase labour efficiency

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April 2017 – Issue 639

April 2017: Issue 639 grapegrowing

Emerging trend: Single-vineyard wines ....60 Young Gun: Andy Clarke ........................62 Andy’s advice: Work hard. Travel. Ask a lot of questions.

National win for SA grapegrowers ..........64 Developments in vineyard mechanisation and precision management .....................65

More knowledge helps battle grapevine trunk disease .......................... 76

winemaking

business & technology

Gentle or intense grape crushing?............77

Home run for Seabrook Wines ................90 90

Simon Nordestgaard reports on the evolution of grape crushing equipment and some of the new crushers being proposed

Looking to minimising risk, and boosted by sine good timing, Hamish Seabrook has successfully created a Barossa home for his family wine brand

Problem wines we’ve recently seen… ......86

Science of increasing sales and profit: Part Two ................................92

Greg Howell reports on some of the issues his laboratories have seen – and the solutions that were available

Ask the AWRI: Adding water to high sugar must ..................................88

PUBLISHER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE Hartley Higgins

PRODUCTION Simon Miles

GENERAL MANAGER Elizabeth Bouzoudis

CIRCULATION: Emilie Francis subs@winetitles.com.au

EDITOR Nathan Gogoll editor@grapeandwine.com.au EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor, Mary Retallack and Corrina Wright EDITORIAL journalist@winetitles.com.au ADVERTISING SALES Nicole Evans sales@grapeandwine.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

Yalumba launches $350 ‘super claret’......94

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

what’s Say that again ONLINE We are not in a hurry. We are being very disciplined Wine yields doubled in parts of WA Ideal conditions have seen winegrape yields more than double in some vineyards around Western Australia, but recent weather has proven a challenge for winemakers. Higher ground-water levels, a long, cold winter, and mild summer had things looking “exceptional” around the Margaret River, reports the ABC.

Vineyards warned to be vigilant Vineyard operators have been reminded to implement best practice biosecurity measures when entering and leaving properties. Damien Sheehan, Victorian Viticulture Biosecurity Committee chairman, said best practice biosecurity was the responsibility of vineyard owner/manager, and the best place to implement it was at the farm gate reports The Weekly Times.

Aussies wallowing at the bottom Australia is the largest supplier of imported wine to the UK, and according to US Nielsen figures the largest supplier to the US also. But Australia’s exports have recorded slight declines in volume and value in both countries. Per 750ml bottle, Australian wine is the second cheapest wine in the UK and the cheapest in the US, according to The Key Report.

Full 2017-18 opening allocation Improved Murray-Darling Basin storages and strong inflows has seen South Australian Murray irrigators receive 100 per cent opening water allocation for the upcoming water year. The announcement of full entitlement for 2017-18 is a far cry from just last year, when the opening allocation for irrigators sat at 36 per cent of water entitlement reports the ABC.

with luxury releases across regions and vintages. And we will see exponentially larger returns when we do it right. - Michael Clarke, Treasury Wine Estates’ CEO (Page 27)

Our business showed its strongest growth in recent years and importantly at profitable and sustainable levels. - Dean Carroll, Brown Brothers chief executive officer (Page 31)

We need an option that is economically and environmentally viable to replace treated wooden posts and avoid putting newly-created posts into the ground. - Sam Bowman, from Bowman Viticulture (Page 49)

The missing component in all the research that’s been done to date is the smoke composition work. The damaging compounds aren’t in all smoke and they drop out at a certain distances from a fire, so which fires are and aren’t they in? - Dr Ian Porter, Agriculture Victoria (Page 58)

There are certainly many wineries putting out single vineyard wines and they’re all the rage in the market, but it takes a very special site to produce a better wine than can be achieved through careful blending from a range of sites. - Tyson Stelzer, one of Australia’s most-respected wine writers (Page 60)

Do what you can to improve the soil, and then minimal intervention in the field, let the vines find their balance. - Andy Clarke, Yering Station chief viticulturist (Page 63)

Daily Wine News is a snapshot of wine business, research and marketing content gleaned from international wine media sources, with a focus on Australian news and content. To subscribe visit www.winetitles.com.au/dwn. 6 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The lack of objective data on the effects of mechanical actions on grapes under winery conditions is an impediment to the optimised design of crushing equipment and more generally to the optimisation of solid-liquid contact during red wine fermentation. - Simon Nordestgaard, from The Australian Wine Research Institute (Page 82) www.winetitles.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

from the editor

Nathan Gogoll Editor

What's legal and what's illegal? IF YOU TAKE a long, hard look through what you are allowed to add to wine – and, by default what you are not allowed to add – you can come up with some fairly curly questions. Until the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code was updated recently, you couldn’t legally add water to grapes, must or wine – but you could sneak around this legality and add up to 70ml per litre when you were incorporating “permitted additives or processing aids during the winemaking process”. Which means if you were adding a little bit of sulfur to a load of grapes between picking and crushing you could dilute it into 35 litres of water before tipping it into a half-tonne Nally Bin (or 140 litres into a two-tonne coffin bin). Being able to add seven per cent of water seems like a fair bit of wriggle room for something that isn’t technically legal. The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code governs what the legal additives and processing aids are for the use in the production of wine (specifically, Standard 4.5.1 – Wine Production Requirements). These standards were written to ensure the production of wine adhered to a set of rules to protect the consumer, but they also to act as a guide to winemakers… or make them follow a set of rules. I’ve had it put to me the relevance of these standards has not kept pace with modern winemaking and in some areas the local set of rules hasn’t kept pace with what is acceptable practice in other wine regions around the world. But it doesn’t seem the peak industry bodies have changes to the current standards on their agendas, even though it appears

some substances which are prohibited or restricted are in fact being used in Australia and New Zealand anyway. There are even some grey areas when it comes to what is a ‘permitted additive’ and what is a ‘processing aid’. For example, tannin is listed as a permitted additive while oak is listed as a processing aid. Sounds simple. Until you look at where the tannins used in Australia and New Zealand currently are derived from: Oak, grapes, chestnuts, exotic woods and other sources. So now, technically, tannins could be a permitted additive sourced from a processing aid (oak). But what about the other sources of tannin? While the standards allow for ‘exotic woods and other sources’ there’s little guidance on whether tannins derived from chestnuts fit in here. To complicated matters further, chestnuts – which are a common source of tannin for adding to wine – are derived from both the wood and the nuts. But does the use of a permitted additive sourced from both wood and nuts require a nut allergen alert on the wine label? Meanwhile, ‘exotic woods’ covers a broad range of plant species, but not oak. It is most likely things that fit under the ‘exotic woods’ label include the plant species Caesalpinia spinosa, commonly known as Tara (Quechua), native to Peru and Bolivia and a common food additive, but not mentioned in the standards. When you try to drill down into where the tannin additives are derived from, you’ll find it is not always detailed on packaging. So what other sources of tannin are being used in winemaking? They include oak, jarrah, chestnut, cherry, acacia (also referred to as Black

Locus or Robinia pseudoacacia, not our native acacia) and other species have been both used in the past and are currently used in the production of wine in Australia and New Zealand. While not all of these wood sources will have been used as storage vessels (barrels or vats) some of them may have been used as a powder… or as chips, staves and as a tannin additive. While oak is the only wood referred to as a processing aid in the standards, those who know the barrel business inside-out know other species are being used in the production of wine. Wine importers are selling and distributing wine which has been aged in acacia barrels (Robinia pseudoacacia). Acacia is permitted for winemaking use in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the USA, Chile and South Africa. Winemakers in Australia and New Zealand technically are not permitted to use acacia when making wine. Acacia is listed in the prohibited plant and fungi list for use in production of food and wine. But acacia is being currently used to make wine in Australia and New Zealand. So, is the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code is not being adhered to; or it is not being enforced. Or is it too complicated? Or outdated and irrelevant? All these issues make you wonder if the current standards code puts Australian winemakers at a disadvantage compared to their international peers? All these concerns need to be on the agendas of the organisations that represent the grape and wine community. Perhaps it is time to review the standards and reconsider all the processing aids.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

on the grapevine Ballast Stone sold: Casella Family Brands makes another purchase

CASELLA FAMILY BRANDS confirmed it had acquired ownership of assets from Shaw Family Vintners (Ballast Stone Estate) on March 31. The transaction was completed following “a period of confirmatory due diligence”. While the financial terms of the sale are commercial in confidence, it can be confirmed the transaction includes purchase of vineyards, winery, stock and trademark. While the purchase price has not been disclosed, a $16 million figure has been rumoured across the grape and wine community. The purchase includes 432 Hectares of vineyards across Fleurieu Peninsula comprising of 42ha at McLaren Vale and 390ha at Currency Creek. According to a statement from Casella Family Brands: • The acquisition provides Casella Family Brands with premium vineyard holdings across South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula;

• It is consistent with Casella Family Brands’ strategy to expand its position in the fine wine category and create regionally distinct wines from premium South Australian wine regions; and • Casella Family Brands intends to further unlock the potential of these premium vineyards. Commenting on the acquisition, John Casella, Managing Director Casella Family Brands said: “This is primarily a strategic investment in a large quantity of high quality vineyards. As we currently buy approximately 40% of the fruit supply from these sites it increases efficiencies and adds another dimension to our portfolio of already established vineyards. The fruit is well suited to Casella Family Brands’ portfolio of premium wines characterised by having rich fruit flavours with intense colour; it therefore supports our ongoing premiumisation strategy and desire to create regionally

distinct wines from premium South Australian wine regions.” Under the management of Peter Bird, SA Vineyard Manager, Casella Family Brands intends to further unlock the vineyards full potential. “This acquisition makes perfect sense for Casella Family Brands as it increases our grape to glass control and therefore quality assurance in our premium wines. Furthermore, it spreads the risk of fruit supply being adversely affected by climatic conditions elsewhere within South Australia,” Bird said. As well as investing in its owned fruit resource, Casella Family Brands continues to place a huge amount of value on its relationships with grape-growers across the country. “Our relationship with growers continues to be of paramount importance and they remain integral to all of our brands; Yellow Tail, Brand’s Laira, Morris Wines and Peter Lehmann Wines,” John Casella said. “As our company continues to grow, our grower supply base is also expanding. It is an exciting time for the company as we increase our footprint in South Australia through both owned and grower sourced fruit supply.” Casella Family Brands is working through the specifics pertaining to the Shaw Family Vintners winery and vineyard operations. Casella Family Brands is Australia’s largest family wine company and continues to grow its portfolio. In most recent expansions, Casella Family Brands has branched into fine wine offerings including the Casella premium range of wines, Peter Lehmann Wines, Barossa, Brand’s Laira, Coonawarra and Morris Wines, Rutherglen.

Export package to stimulate regional growth REPRESENTATIVES FROM South Australian winemaking regions, Winemakers Federation of Australia (WFA), Wine Australia (AGWA), Australian Vignerons (AV) and the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) came together in Adelaide this week, in the first of the national consultation meetings being held in each state, to discuss the options for the Federal Government’s $50 million Export and Regional Wine Support package. Chaired by WFA President, Sandy Clark, an industry Reference Group will report to the Boards of WFA, AGWA and AV, who will endorse the final recommendations on the Package to the Minister. The second meeting of the Reference Group was held on 10 March.

8 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Importantly, the group identified the need for the program to increase the sustainable profitability of the wine (and cider) industries, by the development and implementation of the $50 million, three-year export and regional stimulus package. This package will result in an increase in exports and domestic demand and the encouragement of regional tourism, initiated both domestically and internationally, through the development of a suitable suite of marketing initiatives. State and regional industry bodies will have the opportunity to provide input before a formal business plan is submitted to Government on 28 April 2017. Consultations will continue around the nation on the following dates: www.winetitles.com.au

Sydney – 16 March Perth – 21 March Melbourne – 22 March Launceston – 23 March Queensland – 20 April Tony Battaglene, Chief Executive of WFA says he is confident the package will benefit the whole sector. “The turn-around time is tight, however we have been actively planning for this and we are in a strong position to administer the best long-term solution for the wine sector,” Battaglene said. “This support package will complement AGWA’s export and market promotion activities; the WET Rebate Reforms announced in the 2016 Budget; and the $10 million cellar door and regional tourism grant that comes in in 2018–19.” April 2017 – Issue 639

On-premise recovery in Australia and New Zealand THE AMOUNT of imported wine on Australian wine lists fell for the first time in five years according to research just released by Wine Business Solutions. At 34% of all listings, imported wines dipped by 7.5% compared to what they were at this time last year. This trend is far from consistent across the country, however, and imports make up just under half of all NSW wine listings.

Growth is being led by the cool climate regions of Adelaide Hills, The Great Southern and Canberra District. Margaret River wines have also enjoyed a considerable boost in listings during the last 12 months. According to Peter McAtamney, Wine Business Solutions principal, “the Adelaide Hills has perhaps been the most proactive Australian region in terms of reading the changes in the market and

responding with unique, innovative food friendly wines”. “New Zealand has also started to make a comeback. They needed to. New Zealand had lost a staggering 38% of its listings between 2014–16. Now, we’re seeing less Marlborough product in the main part of Australian lists and much more from regions like Waipara and Nelson were the need to innovate and evolve has been most acutely felt.”

New Horticulture Code of Conduct THE START OF APRIL marked the introduction of a transition period towards a tighter Horticulture Code of Conduct. Although winegrape growers are mostly left unaffected by the changes (which now include penalties up to $54,000), winegrape traders will be affected. The likes of CCW (Consolidated Cooperative Wineries), Northeast Valleys Wine Group, and Grape Logistics will be accountable to the code of conduct. These groups and individuals who work as the merchant between the grower

and the wineries operate on the same structure as a fruit and vegetable agents that on-sell produce on with their premium applied. Prior to 1 April, contracts entered in to before the code of conduct was instated didn’t have to comply with regulatory rules and if they did, there was no formal punishment. From here on, suppliers, agents and merchants have 12 months to see through existing contracts, then must comply by 1 April 2018 or as soon as the contract changes. Compliance will still be handled

by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, who will now have the power to conduct audits and assign penalties for breaches. Producers and merchants will now be required to retain records for up to seven years – matching the requirements of the Australian Taxation Office. The changes will create better clarity for winegrape sales through an agent, as structure and regulation will keep business fair on both ends.

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movers & shakers Amanda Whiteland: The new Margaret River marketing director

THE MARGARET RIVER Wine Association has appointed Amanda Whiteland to the newly-created position of marketing director. A south-west local, Whitehead brings a wealth of global wine marketing experience having worked in marketing roles both domestically and internationally for 20 years. Whiteland has extensive experience working in cross-cultural and challenging

environments, in both large and small organisations. The new senior role will report to the board and will be charged with further developing and implementing the Margaret River Wine positioning through a structured and planned marketing approach. “Having worked overseas for threequarters of my career, I have always been a huge ambassador for Margaret River Wine quality and its unique positioning in Australia. I am really excited to collaborate with our members, the wider community and industry to further build the Margaret River brand,” Whiteland said. Cath Oates, Margaret River Wine Association chair, said: “Amanda brings unique skills and wide ranging experience to the Association, having a strong understanding of the fine wine industry, key international markets and the local South West region. We are excited to have someone of her calibre to lead our Association forward.” Key responsibilities will focus upon

marketing planning, brand management and stakeholder communications. In addition, Pip Heaford who has worked for the association since 2008 has been promoted and will now work fulltime. Tamara Chick, recently employed as Administration and Accounts Officer, will continue in her current role. The Margaret River Wine Association was started by a group of winemakers in the late 1970s. The Margaret River Grape Growers & Winemakers Association as it was known then, was incorporated in 1982 and at that time had only a handful of members. The charter of the association has remained constant over the years – primarily to represent the interests of the Margaret River wine industry and promote Margaret River wine. The association was one of the first groups in Australia to register a geographic boundary for our region in 1996 and Margaret River was one of the first three wine regions in Australia to have its boundaries legally defined by the Australian government.

Entries now open: 2017 Bayer 'young viticulturist of the year' NOW IN ITS 12TH YEAR, the Bayer Young Viticulturist of the year competition continues to grow along with the calibre of the contestants. Aimed at growing the future leaders of the New Zealand wine industry, the competition increases the confidence, skills and networking opportunities for all those who compete. This gives the contestants as well as the wine industry a very strong foundation from which to continually improve and develop. The competition is tough, testing all aspects of vineyard management. It includes both theoretical and practical questions as well as delivering a speech

in front of a dinner audience of key industry players. There are again five regional competitions this year with the winners going on to compete in the National Final held in conjunction with Bragato at the end of August in Marlborough. The last three winners, Paul Robinson, Caleb Dennis and Cameron Price, have all come from Hawke’s Bay – can another region break the run in 2017? The competition benefits both employees and employers as confidence, enthusiasm and knowledge expand. So put these dates in your diary and encourage your Young Vits to enter:

Hawke’s Bay: 22 June 2017, Te Awa Auckland: 30 June 2017, Goldie Estate, Waiheke Marlborough: 6 July 2017, Giesen Central Otago: 14 July 2017, Central Polytechnic, Cromwell Wairarapa: 20 July 2017, Palliser Estate National Final: 29 August 2017, Marlborough, TBC Contestants must be 30 years of age, or younger, at 31 December 2017 to enter. For more information or entry form, contact Nicky Grandorge: E: youngvit@nzwine.com Ph: 021 780948

Misha’s Vineyard unveils its Central Otago tasting room MISHA’S VINEYARD has opened a tasting room in Cromwell, the heart of the Central Otago wine region. The ideal location overlooking Lake Dunstan on the main approach to Cromwell, is already proving a busy destination for wine lovers. Vineyard owners Andy and Misha Wilkinson have a spectacular 57-hectare estate on the edge of Lake Dunstan at Bendigo, just ten minutes from Cromwell, but felt a more centrally located tasting room would be easier for guests to access. With 20 export markets established and 10 vintages completed, the owners decided it was the right time to open a

10 Grapegrower & Winemaker

tasting room to showcase their wines. “We receive calls every day from people visiting from overseas who are familiar with our brand and want to visit” said Andy. “We are also seeing increased tourism, with Central Otago growing its reputation as a world-class wine and food destination. Cromwell was also recently named the fastest-growing small town in the country, so it’s really exciting to be part of that growth.” With the wine tourist in mind, the design concept for Misha’s Vineyard Tasting Room was to create a simple yet elegant space that would enable www.winetitles.com.au

guests to have a relaxed personal tasting experience. French country inspired theme was chosen as the perfect backdrop for the pale blue and gold of the Misha’s Vineyard brand with the interiors and furniture being custom-built. The facility includes a private tasting room for members of the newly launched Misha’s Vineyard Vine Club. “The opening of this new tasting room signifies a new phase of growth for us,” said Misha Wilkinson. “We’ve won many fans along the way so now we have a place we can host them and thank them for their support, as well as the opportunity of winning some new fans.” April 2017 – Issue 639

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REGIONAL ROUNDUP

Regional roundup: New South Wales CSU boutique wine celebrates University connections CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY’S (CSU) new boutique wine was launched in March with a toast to the expertise of both the alumni and current students. Professor Andrew Vann, CSU ViceChancellor, poured the first glass at a wine-tasting afternoon tea for more than 50 invited guests. “Charles Sturt University is proud of its leading research and 40 year history in training grape growers and winemakers,” Vann said. “In producing this boutique wine we’re highlighting that expertise, working with growers and winemakers who are alumni and sourcing fruit from growers who have close connections with University.” The 2016 boutique vintage of 550

cases includes Chardonnay, Shiraz, Rose, Tempranillo, and Nebbiolo wines. Fruit has been sourced from premium NSW growing regions including, Orange, Tumbarumba, Hilltops and Canberra. “This carefully crafted boutique wine makes the most of the unique characteristics of grapes and the regions they were grown in,” Vann said. “In the same way Charles Sturt University aims to help our students make the most of their unique skills, experience and background to achieve their goals and make a difference to our community.” The labels for the new brand feature artwork by award winning artist and CSU graduate Dr Tony Curran.

The artwork reflects the vitality of university life defined by colour, density and complexity. CSU’s new boutique brand is available online and at the cellar door in Wagga Wagga with a focus on alumni, staff, students and the wine club. It will also feature at University hosted events. CSU wine sales coordinator Ms Narelle Ingold said she was excited to share this wine with the public to showcase what can be achieved in small-batch, boutique production. “The cellar door at CSU in Wagga Wagga is a wonderful place to bring visitors to the region and we also sell wine by the glass and cheese platters,” Ingold said.

Margan calls for more tourism support

ANDREW MARGAN has stirred up the discussion about tourism funding in the Hunter Valley, criticising the Destination NSW, the New South Wales tourism organisation, for a lack of presence at the recent ProWein event in Germany. Margan pointed out that other states had a presence at ProWein, backed by state governments. “The South Australian tourism authority (South Australian Tourism Commission) is sponsoring certain workshops over in Germany, connected to this fair, to promote wine tourism into South Australia,” Margan told the ABC. “That’s an example of a State Government that works very closely with their wine industry, and Victoria is the same, and Western Australia is the same. “One hundred per cent we (NSW) are getting left behind, and will continue to do so until we get some recognition from

12 Grapegrower & Winemaker

our government bodies, and some help and some assistance.” Margan said NSW producers had been at a disadvantage as individual wineries were heading to ProWein without the support of the state organisation. “At the end of the day it’s all operator funded, and to continue to promote a region like the Hunter Valley using operator funding is really, really difficult,” Margan told the ABC. “It appears the other states recognise that and financially support wine tourism industries within their states, and here in NSW it just doesn’t happen. “We’ve got the product, we’ve got all the plans, we’ve got the people, we’ve got the resources, we’ve got everything except for the dollars and sense to actually make it happen.” “There’s a problem or disconnection with our state government tourism authority and what the New South Wales wine industry is doing and needing, and they don’t seem to value us sufficiently,” he said. “I am just at a loss as to why Destination NSW don’t rate us as much as they should. “There is a clear understanding of how valuable wine tourism has become, how valuable it is to our economy, and tourism has just taken over from coal as our number one income-generating activity, and wine tourism is a significant part of that.” Margan’s position was supported by Jo Thomas, Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association general manager. www.winetitles.com.au

“Without a healthy wine industry we don’t have tourism here in the Hunter Valley, and most of the time producers here in the Hunter Valley are self-funding their own missions and trade shows in the international market,” Thomas told the ABC. “Everything that we do is helping New South Wales and Sydney in terms of international tourism. Sydney has great benefit out of all the promotion and trade missions we do out of our regions. “We have a continuous open line to Destination NSW, there’s just not a lot being done about it at this point. “To be fair to Destination NSW they have to share the love, but the Hunter Valley is the number one destination outside of Sydney so it’s important they look at the hero destinations and continue to support those industries.” A Destination NSW spokesperson told local media there had been collaboration with Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and funding for some events in the region. “Developing and promoting the wine sector remains a key focus for the NSW Government,” the spokesperson said. “In July 2016 the NSW Government announced a record $43 million will be spent on boosting regional tourism over four years. Destination NSW is an active member of the NSW Wine Industry Working Group, working with the NSW Wine Industry Association and the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet in the development of the NSW Wine Strategy 2028.” April 2017 – Issue 639

Letters to the editor

Easter and vintage dates In response to the March 2017 article ‘What held up this year’s harvest?’, I would love to share a trend that I have been watching over a number of years as to the timing of vintage, initially prompted by my kids wanting to go camping at Easter. There is some predictability as to whether the season will be early or late, based on the timing of Easter. The timing of the full moon after the Autumn equinox, known as the Harvest Moon in the northern hemisphere equivalent, is a signal of how early or late the growing

season will be. This was a really obvious relationship for the early 2016 vintage (the full moon was on 23rd March) and the late 2017 vintage (the full moon will be on 11th April), giving us the almost 3 week difference in harvest dates. The position of the Earth and its moon in relation to the sun and the rest of the cosmos appears to influence the weather, in particular the atmospheric temperature on Earth. It would be great to hear an astronomer’s explanation of this phenomenon. If we use the date of the full moon as

a ’rule of thumb’ to predict vintage, 2018 will be early followed by a run of later vintages and returning to early vintages in 2021 and 2024. It is an excellent guide for knowing when and what to spray, how to manage yields on late-ripening varieties and for most of us there will never be an opportunity to go camping at Easter! - Prue Henschke Henschke Wines, Keyneton SA

Burgundy. Some howled us down, others understood. Many, like Phil Shaw were already doing it. Now we have plaudits being handed out to winemakers who have gone too far in the guise of ‘natural’. We are now supposed to accept that a wine can be orange, cloudy, volatile – and then give credit to the maker for making ‘different’ wine. Come on! Have a positive look at the Roseworthy influence. Count up the classic benchmark wines made by Roseworthy graduates. The best aren’t boring – they are second to none. Let’s see Roseworthy being given credit for that! - John Ellis Hanging Rock Wines, Newham VIC

* Editor’s note: Ellis was responding to a New Zealand article ‘Winemakers try something new, throwing out the Roseworthy Rules’ which was highlighted by Daily Wine News.

The Roseworthy influence It’s 47 years since I left Roseworthy. Yes, things have changed – but you’d be very surprised if they didn’t in that time span. What Roseworthy gave us is an understanding of the science and the controls needed to make good and great wine. Here’s a short list – pH, refrigeration, clarification of juice, pure yeasts, malolactic, filtration, oak. Once you know how to control these – and more - then you can play with letting go some of those controls e.g. wild yeast ferments, solids fermentation. These ‘natural’ winemaking trends didn’t arrive just now. They’ve been a considered part of winemaking for longer than we’ve been around. Gordon Gebbie and I produced a paper in 1982 on the use of wild yeasts from

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April 2017 – Issue 639

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The Grapegrower & Winemaker’s annual list of the largest wine producers in Australia

April 2017 – Issue 639

RECOVERY MODE

THE TOP 20 LIST

We set the scene for this year’s list of Top 20 wine companies (ranked by revenue) with figures and analysis drawn from The Australian & New Zealand Wine Industry Directory. The 2016 Australian grape crush was up; average price per tonne of grapes rose; and as a result the estimated value of the 2016 harvest rose by more than 20%.

Treasury Wine Estates has established itself as the clear leader when ranking wine brands by revenue. In 2016 it boasted greater sales revenue than the next two on the list, combined. Pernod Ricard Winemakers ranked second, Accolade third. The movers on the list were family owned businesses: Zilzie Wines was the biggest improver; Kingston Estate Wines moved up; and Calabria Family Wines entered the table in 20th position.

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Australia’s largest

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Recovery mode Nathan Gogoll reports on the state of the industry, setting the scene for this year’s list of Top 20 wine companies (ranked by revenue). The figures and much of the analysis has been provided by The Australian & New Zealand Wine Industry Directory, published by Winetitles Media. THE 2016 AUSTRALIAN GRAPE CRUSH soared above recent averages to reach an estimated 1.81 million tonnes. Not since 2008 has there been a larger national number. There didn’t seem to be many complaints – which probably had a lot to do with the average price per tonne of grapes rising 14% from 2015 levels. The national crush was more than 100,000 tonnes above the previous year (a six per cent increase from the 2015 actual crush, as tallied by the Department of Agricuture and Water Resources from levies paid). The estimate a value of the 2016 grape harvest was $951 million, up more than 20% from $788 million in 2015. This meant the 2016 crush was actually above the average across the previous five years – which was 1.70 million (2011-15). Anecdotally it was a year that kept both grapegrowers and winemakers happy (the growers were impressed with their yields and the makers pleased with the quality).

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But when you dig further into the statistics from the latest edition of The Australian & New Zealand Wine Industry Directory there was something that might come as a surprise… the larger crush wasn’t driven by the warm inland regions (Murray Darling/Swan Hill, Riverina, Riverland). Those inland regions actually posted a slight drop in production (but only 0.6% down from 2015), which meant the entire jump, plus some, came from the cool and temperate regions. Two South Australian regions posted big turnarounds from the low-yielding 2015 vintage and delivered 40,000 of the national 100,000 tonne increase between them – Langhorne Creek was up 57% from the previous year and McLaren Vale production increased by 47%. Langhorne Creek overtook the Barossa and delivered a bigger crush than the entire state of Victoria.

STATE-BASED NUMBERS: • SA’s crush lifted 16% and accounted

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•

• •

•

for 51% of the national crush, up from 47% in the previous year; In NSW, the overall crush was down by 5%, reflecting a difficult year in the Riverina; Victoria was down by 9%; WA increased by 16%, but still accounted for just 2% of the national crush; and Both Tasmania (up 27%) and Queensland (up were up 212%) increased off low bases.

WHAT WAS CRUSHED:

• The 2016 red crush was estimated to be 935,000 tonnes, an increase of 83,000 tonnes or 10% compared to 2015; • The white crush was estimated at almost 872,000 tonnes, an increase of 21,000 tonnes or 2%; • Red varieties increased their share of the national crush from 50% to 52%; • Most of the major red varieties posted increases, with Cabernet Sauvignon up 20%, Pinot Noir up 9%, Shiraz up by 7% and Merlot up 3%. The

April 2017 – Issue 639

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top three red varieties by volume were Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, together accounting for 85% of the total red crush; Shiraz continued to dominate with 46% of the total red crush, down slightly from 47% in 2015. Cabernet Sauvignon increased its share from 25% to 27%, while Merlot decreased from 13% to 12%; Chardonnay increased its dominance over other white varieties, lifting from 45% to 47% of the overall crush, on the back of 6% tonnage increase; Sauvignon Blanc cemented its position as Australia’s second-most popular white grape, also increasing its share of the crush, up from 11% to 12%; However, a number of other varieties on the top 10 white list recorded production drops. Colombard was down by 17%, Semillon fell 6% and Pinot Gris/Grigio was down by 4%;

VINTAGE INTAKE VALUE: The Winemakers Federation of Australia reported the total value of fruit purchased was estimated to be $646 million, a 15% increase from $564 million in 2015 (figures from the WFA’s 2016 Wine Sector Survey). The WFA extrapolated this figure

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to estimate a value of $951 million for the 2016 national grape harvest, a 21% increase from $788 million in 2015. The total harvest value grew at a faster rate than grape purchases because of an increase in winery-owned vineyard yield – up from 28% to 32% of the national harvest. The WFA then calculated an average price per tonne purchased of $529, up 14% from $463 in 2015. This figure is the highest since 2009 and above the average price for the past five years of $477 per tonne. The average purchase value of red grapes increased by 13% from $575 per tonne to $651 per tonne, while the average value of white grapes increased by 12% from $356 per tonne to $398 per tonne. Chardonnay had the greatest increase (up 21%), followed by Cabernet Sauvignon (up 17%), while prices for Shiraz increased by 14%, slightly above the overall 13% rise for red grapes. While grapegrowers will no doubt welcome the increase, some will still remember back to the early 2000s when the five-year average price from 2001 to 2005 was $763 per tonne.

THE CURRENT ENVORINMENT The data from the 2016 vintage contains signs that improved business www.winetitles.com.au

conditions are being experienced across the grape and wine community. However, for some grapegrowing and winemaking businesses their contribution to the industry has reduced – or even ceased. The national vineyard area dropped to levels last seen in 2001 and more than 70 wineries were removed from the Wine Industry Directory listing in the past year. (The evidence of 2016 providing a bumper crop can be seen when comparing the 2016 intake with 2001, when there was a comparable national vineyard area but the vintage provided about 400,000 tonnes less.) Across the past three years a total of 179 winery businesses have closed, representing 7% of the industry total. The number of wineries reduced in all states in 2016, with the largest declines in Victoria (25) and NSW/ACT (22). The decline in numbers occurred exclusively among small producers with an annual crush of less than 250 tonnes. Victoria is bearing the brunt of this trend because it is home to one third of all Australian wineries of this size. By contrast, the number of producers around the country with a crush of more than 1000 tonnes actually increased, up from 114 to 120. April 2017 – Issue 639

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wine companies These figures highlight that the wine industry in 2016 operated at two speeds: for medium and large wineries with exposure to surging export markets, the past year delivered good times; but small wineries that relied on domestic sales continued to be caught by low prices and came under even greater pressure. Less than half of Australian wine producers (48%) are exporting their products. There is no denying the industry still faces challenges, including a continuing grape oversupply in some regions. And the changes to the Wine Equalisation Tax in the 2016 budget are still to be played out. Rising costs of water and electricity are also increasingly pressing issues, and there it does not seem likely there will be relief offered by any increases in the domestic retail market – which is still largely a duopoly between Coles (Wesfarmers Limited – which owns Vintage Cellars, 1st Choice Liquor Superstore, Liquorland as well as about 100 hotels) and Woolworths (Endeavour Drinks Group – which owns BWS and Dan Murphy’s; more than 330 licensed venues across Australia under the Australian Leisure and Hospitality (ALH) Group; and Pinnacle Drinks, which partners with winemakers to deliver own-brand

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products exclusively BWS, Dan Murphy’s and the ALH group). The Wine Industry Directory also revealed some interesting trends in business practices by wine companies – the number of companies with a cellar door outlet continued to fall in 2016, but the steep decline since 2011 appears to have bottomed out. Less than two thirds of all producers across the country now operate a cellar door, compared to almost 80% a decade ago. In other business trends, the percentage of wine companies making sparkling wines continues to grow and now stands at 42%, up from 29% five years ago; while those making fortified wine remained steady, at about 28%.

VITICULTURE New figures on vineyard area were not available in 2016 as the Australian Bureau of Statistics has stopped data collection in this area (a new national data series on vineyard area is under development by Wine Australia). However, it is worth revisiting some of the data from the last report issued by the ABS for 2015. The total area of Australia’s vineyards continued to decline in 2015. Estimates from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show total vineyard area (including not-

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yet-bearing areas) decreased by 9% from 148,500 ha in the previous survey in 201112, to 135,000 ha in 2014-15. Vineyard area has now declined by 22% from the record level of 2006-07, and is lower than any time since 1999. The contraction was evident in all states except Tasmania. New South Wales suffered the biggest decline, reducing by 5,073 ha or 13%, followed by South Australia, where vineyard area decreased by 4,398 ha or 6.2%. South Australia remained the leading vineyard state, with 66,912 ha. This represented 49.5% of national vineyard area and was almost double the next largest state, New South Wales, with 34,092 ha under vine. Victoria was the third largest State (23,088 ha), followed by Western Australia (9,013 ha). Tasmania defied the national trend to increase its area under vine by 14% to 1,505 ha, and slightly lifted its national share to 1.1%. Big Rivers in New South Wales and Lower Murray of South Australia were the largest zones. New plantings of vines increased in 2015 for the first time in at least a decade, up from 940 ha in 2012 to 1,235 ha in 2015. New plantings were heavily weighted towards red winegrapes, which accounted for 988 ha or 80% of the

April 2017 – Issue 639

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“We have been using DIAM corks since the 2004 Vintage and have been very pleased with the way the wines have aged and the consistency bottle to bottle. Both Chardonnay and Pinot Noir that have now spent over ten years sealed with DIAM consistently drink well in 2016 and are perceived to be fresh and to have developed well, both by ourselves and many wine professionals and consumers.” Michael Dhillon – Bindi Wines

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wine companies 2015 total. The national increase was driven by South Australia, where new plantings almost doubled from 435 ha to 825 ha. Activity also lifted in Victoria and Western Australia. New plantings of red winegrapes were dominated by Shiraz (462 ha) and Cabernet Sauvignon (295 ha). Among white varieties, Chardonnay accounted for 66 ha or almost 27% of total plantings of 247 ha. Pinot Gris was the second most popular among new white plantings (39 ha), followed by Riesling (33 ha). It is worth noting that vineyard data is still collected for South Australia by Vinehealth Australia (formerly the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of South Australia). Vinehealth Australia reported a decrease of 3.4% or 260 ha in the area planted to vines in South Australia in April 2016, compared to the previous year. Total vineyard area now stands at 75,858 ha after four consecutive years of decline. New plantings were also lower at 462 ha, down from 864 ha planted in the previous season.

WINE EXPORTS The revival of the industry’s fortunes is being led by exports, which grew at the strongest rate since 2003 – with Treasury Wine Estates leading the way. International markets for Australian wine have been boosted by free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. The exchange rate was also favourable for exports to the US – the Australian dollar averaged around $US0.75 in 2016. The total value of Australian exports in the year to June jumped by 11% from $1.89 billion in 2015 to $2.11 billion in 2016. It was the second consecutive year of export growth, which, combined with positive outlook for 2017, suggests the industry has entered a new growth phase. The average value of Australian wine exports per litre also improved by 11%, up from $2.67 to $2.90, the highest level since 2009. A breakdown of total exports by destination country shows the strong 2016 result was largely driven by sales to China, which jumped by 50% to $419 million in the year to June. Updated figures for the year to September 2016 showed further growth in sales to $474 million, making China the number one export market for Australian wine for the first time. Demand from China soared thanks to a combination of the benefits

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flowing from the new China-Australia free trade agreement and a rapidly expanding Chinese middle class, which is consuming imported wines more often and in vastly increased numbers. Across the region, Hong Kong exports grew in value by 7% to $126 million in the year to September and recorded the highest average value for exports at $13.53 per litre. China overtook the US, despite 4% growth in US sales to $448 million. The average value of US exports hit its highest level since 2009, up 12% to $2.93 per litre. The UK remained Australia’s largest export market in volume terms, but with 83% of exports shipped in bulk, the UK ranks third in value. Exports were down 3% to $361 million as a result of an 11% decline in exports below $2.50 per litre. Australia’s top five export markets by value were China (up 51%), the US (up 4%), the UK (down 3%), Canada (up 1%) and Hong Kong (up 7%) While China led the surge in total exports, there was a broad-based increase in demand, with export value growing in 81 of the 122 destinations for Australian wine. A feature of the year was growth in premium price segments of $10 or more per litre, which increased by 28% to a record $547 million. This represented more half of the all the value growth in the year to September. Exports in these premium categories were up in all top five markets — mainland China up by 63%, the US up by 21%, the UK up 20%, Canada by 9% and Hong Kong by 7%. More than a third of Australian wine exports priced at $10 or more were destined for China, a 63% increase on the previous year. All premium price segments above $10 per litre recorded strong growth. Sales in the $20 to less than $30 segment jumped by 38% to $78 million, while sales in the $30 to less than $50 range soared by 55% to $50 million. Total bottled exports increased by 16% to $1,633 million in the year to June, driven by an 18% rise in red wine to $1,278 million. In contrast, bulk sales decreased by 0.5% to $392 million. Shiraz strengthened its position as the most favoured exported variety, with value increasing 20% to $488 million or almost one quarter of total exports by value. Cabernet Sauvignon exports rose almost as quickly, up 17% to $276 million, while Cabernet Sauvignon/ www.winetitles.com.au

Shiraz blends rose 7% to $118 million and Merlot increased by 5% to %97 million. Chardonnay was the only white variety among the top five exports, and went against the trend by declining 1% to $164 million.

IMPORTS In welcome news for local producers, Australian wine imports decreased in volume terms in the year to June, 2016, down by 3.7%. However, in value terms imports increased for the fifth consecutive year, lifting by 5.6% to $731 million due to a decline in the proportion of lower value product. The average value per litre increased by 10% from $A7.61 to $A8.34 per litre, reversing the trend of the previous year. New Zealand remained the leading source of Australia’s wine imports, but there was a decline in NZ wine coming into the country compared to the previous year. NZ imports were down in both volume and value terms, falling by 10% and 4% respectively. By contrast, French imports increased significantly, rising by 14% in value to $285 million in 2016. This followed an 11% increase in the previous year and means French imports are rapidly closing in on NZ imports in terms of value, even though French volumes are less than one third of New Zealand’s. Italy and Spain also boosted their sales to Australians in 2016, with sales value rising by 14% and 19% respectively. This was achieved along with single digit growth in sales value per litre. Imports from Argentina jumped in value by 34% after producers managed to secure significantly higher prices from Australian consumers. US producers also managed to achieve sharply increased prices, with the average price per litre jumping by 53% from $A6.13 to $A9.39. Meanwhile, Portugal and Chile battled it out for the title of Australia’s leading source of low-cost imports.

Acknowledgements Much of the statistical information for this overview was sourced from the Wine Australia and the Winemaker’s Federation of Australia’s annual vintage summary. Winetitles acknowledges the assistance of Wine Australia’s Peter Bailey and Sandy Hathaway and thanks those wine companies who submitted data for the top wine producer lists.

April 2017 – Issue 639

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Winejobs data: ‘Sales & Marketing’ jobs on top again ACCORDING TO DATA collected by Winetitles Media there were more job opportunities for winemakers in 2016 compared to 2015, while management opportunities reduced from one year to the next. Statistics from Winejobs, Australia’s leading wine industry jobs site (www. winejobs.com.au), revealed a third of all jobs posted on the site in 2016 were in the ‘sales and marketing’ sector. Winemaking job ads rose compared to the previous year, accounting for 18% of those promoted. Jobs listed under ‘viticulture’ held steady at 13% for the year, while employment opportunities in ‘production’ accounted for 8% of the total. Two categories to record reductions in job ads included ‘management’ which fell

from 12% in 2015 to 7% of the 2016 total; and ‘administration’ which declined from nearly 10% of the 2015 listings to 4% in 2016. Listings by the location of the job roughly reflected the ranking of wine production by state. A third of the job ads were for positions located within South Australia; 27% within Victoria; 25% within New South Wales; 6% in Western Australia; 6% in Tasmania and 3% in Queensland. Job ads were evenly spread across the calendar year, with the biggest back-toback month totals occurring in October and November - when more than 22% of all job listings for 2016 were posted. The spike in spring would not be unexpected, given the additional recruiting that takes place in preparation for vintage.

ABOUT WINEJOBS ‘Winejobs’ is a resource for the industry administered by Winetitles Media. As Australia’s leading wine industry jobs site, it seeks to benefit both employers and job searchers. For the employers, the site puts their position in front of the target audience. The site is also proud to offer maximum candidate reach for the most cost effective price. Job searchers looking for wine and viticulture related opportunities can target their search with Winejobs via location, date and industry category. For more information, contact: P: +618 8369 9500 E: jobs@winetitles.com.au

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April 2017 – Issue 639

Wine producer rankings While there are nearly 2400 wine companies in Australia, the 20 largest wineries crushed almost 85% of the 2016 total grape intake. These large companies are the real ‘movers and shakers’ within the grape and wine community.

RANKING BY REVENUE The wine companies which have a high proportion of branded sales and strong export performances rise to the top of the annual revenue list, rather than those who crush more tonnes to service lower-value bulk sales. Treasury Wine Estates is the clear leader with sales of more than $1.2 million. Pernod Ricard Winemakers ranked second with estimated sales of $570 million. Third ranked Accolade Wines is estimated to have climbed to have a revenue of almost $560 million in 2016. In other changes to the revenue league table, Kingston Estate Wines overtook Angove Family Winemakers to rank in 12th position; while Zilzie Wines was the biggest improver, up from 18th to 15th, following strong growth in winegrape intake the previous year. Berton Vineyards lifted its ranking by one position, while Calabria Family Wines entered the table in 20th position. Total revenues of the top 20 wine producers increased by 9%, or $345 million, to an estimated $4,066 million in the year to June. Growth in revenues was concentrated among the top five producers – Treasury Wine Estates, Pernod Ricard Winemakers, Accolade Wines, Casella Wines and Australian Vintage – although 95% of the top 20 reported an increase in sales.

LARGEST PRODUCTION The 2016 ranking of Australia’s top 25 wine producers by volume of wine produced, compiled by the Wine Industry Directory, saw a number of changes from the previous year. Accolade Wines easily retained its mantle as Australia’s largest wine April 2017 – Issue 639

company in terms of volumes produced. The company has grown aggressively over the past year as part of a drive to create the maximum value for its private equity owner, CHAMP, which recently withdrew plans to sell the company in 2017 via an initial public offer. The only change in the top 10 was Treasury Wine Estates overtaking Casella to become the second largest wine producer. Casella performed strongly and benefited along the way from a string of acquisitions in recent years, including Peter Lehmann Wines, Brand’s Laira and Morris Wines, but Treasury Wine Estates was in a better position than all other wine producers to ride the emerging export boom. Most of the movement took place with the wineries ranked outside the top 10. There were gains in the rankings made by a number of companies, including Zilzie Wines and Brown Brothers. There were also strong debuts in the rankings by Byrne Wines and Calabria Family Wines. Idyll Wine Co., the former winemaking business of Littore now owned by the Costa Group, entered the list ranked in 15th position.

INDICATOR OF FUTURE REVENUE The ranking of winegrape intake actually provides an indicator of next year’s movers in the wine production and revenue tables. While there was little change in the overall rankings, a number of companies reported strong growth in winegrape intake in 2016. Kingston Estate lifted intake by 23% from 69,000 to 85,000 tonnes, and will be challenging for a position in the top five if it maintains this growth rate next year. Zilzie Wines boosted intake by www.winetitles.com.au

20% to 52,522 tonnes, which followed a 26% surge a year earlier. Brown Brothers, Wingara and Berton also grew significantly, with intake rising by 22%, 20% and 9% respectively. While the intake of a number of medium-sized producers increased at double digit rates, the top five producers strengthened their dominance of the industry. Winegrape intake by the top five increased from 51% in 2015 to an estimated 55% in 2016, which reflects acquisitions by the major companies in the past three years and their competitive advantage versus medium-sized producers in funding the development of export markets.

OTHER NUMBERS The top five exporters of wine from Australia accounted for an estimated 76% of total export sales. Treasury Wine Estates continues to dominate the export industry, with almost twice the value of exports of its nearest competitor, Casella, and an almost 36% share of national export sales. Treasury Wine Estates also remains Australia’s biggest producer in terms of vineyard area, despite a decline from 9,133 hectares in 2015 to 8,865 hectares in 2016. Casella ranks second with 3,200 hectares and is aggressively adding to its company-owned vineyards, including an extra 420 hectares through the acquisition of Howcroft Vineyards near Bordertown in early 2016. Australian Vintage ranks third with 2,300 hectares, followed by Duxton Vineyards (formerly Littore) with 1,850 hectares and Pernod Ricard Winemakers with 1,662 hectares.

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Treasury Wine Estates Revenue: $1,245 million Production: 207,249 tonnes (2016 Australian grape crush) Employees: 3500+

Treasury Wine Estates continued its transition from an order-taking, agriculture company to a brand-lead marketing organisation in 2016. The focus was to generate the best possible margin from every sale and this meant the company was not afraid to step away from under performing volume sales. Michael Clarke, Treasury Wine Estates’ CEO, said he was “delighted” when he announced the 2016 financial results. The headline news from was the doubling of net profit after tax and earnings per share. “Importantly, our results are sustainable,” Clarke said at the time. Treasury reported Earnings Before Interest, Tax, SGARA

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and material items (EBITS) of $342.0m, up 52% on a reported currency basis and slightly ahead of what had been anticipated back in July. One of the most significant moves was made in the US, with the purchase of Diageo Wine. Treasury moved to withdraw from unprofitable volume within the Diageo businesses and worked to reduce overheads. Clarke said the wine brands in the Diageo portfolio had not been “looked after” and the initial work involved re-negotiated relationships to “move stock with retailers ahead of new releases and new campaigns”. Work done to reduce the complexity of the Diageo range resulted in the discontinuation of 11 non-core Diageo wine brands. “With the wine we have available, we will go to the market with the best margin,” Clarke said. “The ‘muscle’ in our business is being improved to sell at ever higher margins as we get our hands on more luxury fruit.” By the time the company announced its interim 2017 financial result in February this year, the reported net profit after tax had more than doubled compared to the same period 12 months ago.

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Clarke re-stated the position the company is “not about chasing volume”. “The strategy is not chasing case sales, but margin increases,” Clarke said. “We could sell a lot more in the current financial year period, if we wanted to. The benefit to the company is not to chase volume and allocate stock across all regions. “We are not in a hurry. We are being very disciplined with luxury releases across regions and vintages. And we will see exponentially larger returns when we do it right.” Clarke said Treasury was the number one wine imported into China, “without chasing volume” he stressed, and was hovering around number seven or eight on the Japan wine import rankings. “You know we don’t want to be announcing we’re still at number eight next year.” The CEO stressed the strengths of the company remained access to quality winegrapes; quality people; and quality wine. “We have for many years had great quality wine – it’s our number one strength going forward,” Clarke said. “It starts with great-quality juice… and that’s why we are focussed on getting access to great quality fruit.” “There are two things I always focus on – retention of good people and access to good fruit.”

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The company behind Jacob’s Creek, Australia’s biggestselling wine brand, recorded a sales growth of six per cent in 2016. But the Australian division of France’s Pernod Ricard still recorded an $11 million loss. Jacob’s Creek remains the core product, selling more than six million cases of wine annually around the world. When financial statements were lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in mid-February, a review of operations revealed that revenue had improved by $32 million to $550 million for the year ended June 30, 2016, with a major contributor being the favourable exchange rate, which added extra momentum to export sales. The business has also grown in Australia, with the reports indicating domestic net sales had improved on the prior year, with a seven per cent increase in volume. The 2016 loss improved on the previous year, when the figure was more $30 million. However, the Australian division didn’t pay a dividend back to its French parent in 2016.

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A spokesman for Pernod Ricard Winemakers said the result was “impacted by many factors including but not limited to foreign exchange rates, mix of products sold and local market conditions”.

Accolade Wines

Revenue: Estimated at $559 million Production: 313,000 tonnes Employees: NA

It was supposed to be the clearest signal yet of a return of good times for the wine industry… the decision by the private equity owner of Australia’s largest producer to launch an initial public offer (IPO) in early 2017. It followed six years of CHAMP ownership of Accolade Wines and was timed to capitalise on improved industry conditions. But the IPO plans were scrapped in March this year. Just a few weeks later CEO Michael East retired, after about eight months in the role. Jim Anderson, the Accolade board chair, was appointed as executive chairman. At the time East said he had, “always intended to retire at the beginning of 2019 and I believe it is the right thing to do so now in view of the longer time scale for an eventual IPO”. The other big news from the company in 2016 included the acquisition of the Australian division of New Zealand’s Lion drinks business (a division of Japan’s Kirin) including the distribution business Fine Wine Partners. Plans were also released for a $40 million development at the company’s Berri Estates Winery which was to include construction of a bottling line. Work on the new facility was expected to commence in early 2017 with an estimated construction time of 18 months to two years. According to a company statement, the new facility would employ about 40 people; have a bottling capacity of up to eight million cases of wine annually and storage capacity of more than 22 million pallets of inventory when it was completed. No recent updates on this project have been made by Accolade, although the Berri Barmera Council has applied for a Federal Government grant under the Building Better Regions Fund for the project. Based on the briefing document on the grant application, the new bottling and packaging facilities at Berri Estates have been rebranded as the ‘Riverland Revitalisation Project’. The focus of the Accolade business on in-market bottling – at its own facility in Bristol (UK) – has been questioned by some industry insiders. In 2016 the reciprocal bottling arrangement with Treasury Wine Estates concluded and early in 2017 there was a report a South Korean company was looking to buy the wine warehouse and distribution centre in Bristol. The grape prices offered by Accolade in 2016 and 2017 have also been a talking point, with some suggesting the company has been a handbrake on improving regional average prices.

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Casella Family Brands Revenue: $437 million Production: 211,074 tonnes Employees: NA

Casella Family Brands has been very active in the past 18 months. The company has bought wineries, vineyards and brands and has also restructured the family ownership. The Griffith-based company was in founded in 1965 and launched its Yellow Tail brand in 2001, which has become one of the largest brands in the US market. In 2016 the purchases included renowned Rutherglen winery Morris, from Pernod Ricard; one of the largest vineyards in NSW, Dunvar; as well as more than 160 hectares of vineyard in McLaren Vale vineyard, reportedly for more than $12 million. This followed other recent additions to the portfolio with Peter Lehmann Wines, based in the Barossa, and Coonawarra’s Brand’s Laira. It was also reported, by the Australian Business Review, that control of the family business had passed to the three sons of the late founders, Fillippo and Maria Casella. The move was the result of a share buyback agreement, according to the Australian Business Review, which valued the business at $1.5 billion. Around 5.34% of the company has been bought back from three trusts, the paper reported. In the deal, brothers John, Joe and Marcello Casella will each take a share of their late mother’s 45% stake in the company. John Casella, who become managing director of Casella Family Brands in 1994, will have a 50% stake in the business, with Joe and Marco awarded a 30% and 20% stake respectively. But the business deals weren’t done yet. In late March, Casella Family Brands confirmed it had acquired ownership of assets from Shaw Family Vintners (Ballast Stone Estate). The transaction included the purchase was 432 hectares of vineyards as well as the winery, stock and trademark. While the price was not disclosed, a $16million figure has been rumoured across the grape and wine community. The company said this latest acquisition was, “consistent with Casella Family Brands’ strategy to expand its position in the fine wine category and create regionally distinct wines from premium South Australian wine regions”.

Australian Vintage Revenue: $242 million Production: 99,500 tonnes Employees: 425

Australian Vintage was publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 2008 after transitioning from McGuigan Simeon. Originally founded in 1992 by Brian McGuigan, McGuigan Wines merged with Simeon Wines Limited in 2002 to form the powerhouse wine company. As one of the largest vineyard owners and manages in the country, Australian Vintage crushes approximately eight per cent of Australia’s total annual production. The company’s vineyards and grape supply capacity extends through Hunter

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April 2017 – Issue 639

and Barossa Valleys; the Murray-Darling, Langhorne Creek and Limestone Coast regions; as well as Griffith and the Adelaide Hills. In the past year, Australian Vintage has continued to grow with sales of its three key brands; McGuigan, Tempus Two and Nepenthe surging by 20 per cent. Richard Davis, Australian Vintage chairman, said the sales of these three quality brands have grown by 97 per cent over the past five years. “This is a significant achievement,” he said. In February, Australian Vintage posted a $1.6m profit for the first half of the year, having been negatively impacted by $2.7m as a result of unfavourable exchange rates. Neil McGuigan, Australian Vintage chief executive officer, said although disappointed, the company was resilient. “We are in agriculture, so we do take some hits, but the plan is still the plan and we still need to increase our sales footprint in the UK,” he said. The company invested in its traditional market of the UK more than anywhere else in above the line advertising, according to McGuigan, who said Australian Vintage had a clear and robust distribution footprint. However, when it came to human resource and commitment to establishing distribution partnerships, Australian Vintage spent a lot of time and effort in Asia, China and in the US over the past year. Speaking of the Australian market, McGuigan said although

the company’s relationship with the retailer was significant, the consumer has always been the priority. “Our relationship with the retailer is incredibly important. However, not as important as our relationship with the consumer and ensuring we are providing them with wines that are of high quality and the appropriate style, package and price. We must remain true to and respect our brand and ensure we give the consumer what they want - that is, value for money,” McGuigan said.

McWilliam’s Wine Group Revenue: $108m Production: 38,000 tonnes Employees: 182

Made by six consecutive generations of family winemakers, McWilliam’s Wine Group has been greatly influenced by both a passion for winemaking and a deep love of the land. From humble beginnings, the family winery has continued to grow in size and stature to become one of the most prominent wineries in New South Wales. Following its return to 100 per cent

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family ownership in late 2014, McWilliam’s Wines appointed chairman and fifth-generation family member Jeff McWilliam to the role of chief executive officer last year. Acquiring back all of its external interests was a catalyst for McWilliam’s Wines to assess the future and position the company accordingly. “I was involved in the business last year (as non-executive chairman) as we were going through business planning and the review process, so I also had to make a decision on how involved I would be moving forward,” Jeff McWilliam told The Shout in 2016. “Particularly in that environment with Australia’s First Families of Wine, their senior family members are a lot more involved in their businesses and we haven’t been for some time, so obviously that’s a group that we want to be close with and work with, so that was part of the thinking too.” Over the past year, McWilliam’s Wine Group continued to expand across international markets with a key focus and investment in the USA, UK and China. The company also introduced two new products to the market, aimed a variety of consumers. Inspired by the bygone era, McWilliam’s launched a new range of flavoured fortified products late last year. Russell Cody, McWilliam’s senior winemaker, has been making fortified wines for more than 10 years and wanted to create something innovative that would make these classic styles of wine appeal to a broader range of people. Cody said the new concept McWilliam’s Flavour Infusions combined the richness of traditional fortified wine with exciting new flavours of coffee, strawberry and spice. “After trialling these a few years back with my 18-year-old son and his friends, they hassled me for months about when it was coming out. They taste and smell like what they say on the label,” Cody said. McWilliam’s Wines also announced it was launching a trio of premium, single vineyard wines, which will be housed within the brand’s flagship range. The company said the new wines represented “McWilliam’s philosophy of championing two of New South Wales’ emerging cool climate regions - Hilltops and Tumbarumba”.

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De Bortoli Wines Revenue: Estimated at more than $100 million Production: 65,000 tonnes Employees: 400

De Bortoli Wines, a family-owned company established in 1928, returned to profitability in 2016. However, reports suggest this was based on gains in the company’s investment portfolio rather than a big improvement in the core wine business earnings. There has been plenty of focus, from finance reporters especially, on the company’s decision to invest in stocks and shares. There were reports to indicate that sales dipped by nearly $1.5 million in 2016, but financial accounts lodged with ASIC showed a loss of $4.62m in 2015 was transformed into a $10.02m profit. The 2016 accounts show that for the year to June 30, De Bortoli had no losses from investments, compared with a loss of $16.1m the previous year. Darren De Bortoli told The Australian the investments “are marked to book, so depending on what is happening in the various sectors it will have an impact but it very much is treated separately to the core (wine) activity’.’ He also noted the low Aussie dollar was helping the export side of the wine business, particularly sales to Asia. “China is going great, but for us it is just not China, its Asia generally,” he said. “There is certainly a groundswell of support in Asia and what is interesting about China is how quickly the market is evolving there in terms of sophistication.” De Bortoli said the trading environment in Britain would probably remain difficult until the Brexit issue is cleared. “In the short term it is going to be an exceptionally tough ride, until we get it out of the way and things start settling down … but I think in the short term it will be detrimental, mainly through the exchange rate affect.’’

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Warburn Estate Revenue: $102m Production: 35,000 tonnes Employees: 130

Owned by the Sergi family, whose winemaking heritage was brought to the area from Italy in 1952, Warburn Estate has become a leader in both the Riverina wine region and the greater Australian wine industry. Today, it stands tall as a fourth generation, pioneering wine family built on the foundations of hard work and strong family values. Throughout the past year, Warburn Estate has been capitalising on the Chinese export boom. With Mainland China now Australia’s largest wine export market, the company has invested the majority of its international export resources into China. Domestically, Warburn Estate has combated challenges within the Australian wine market by extending existing brand SKUs to reflect market trends. “We have been refreshing existing brands to continue to appeal to the existing customer- while developing new ones,” Mairead Jarrett, Warburn Estate marketing manager, said. As part of this strategy, Warburn Estate has been investing in the Rose category which was recently reported by Wine Australia as the fastest growing wine style in Australia. The company has focused on being ahead of market trends over the past year, with innovation and extension at the core of its brand. Warburn Estate’s 2015 release of its Sweet Lips Infusions brand, a range including three infusions of Hibiscus Pomegranate and Lime; Orange Blossom and Nutmeg; and Mango Ginger and Lemongrass, saw instant success prompting the release of a

forth varietal; Mango, Elderflower and Passionfruit in 2016. Francis Fusca, Warburn Estate executive director sales and marketing, said the company worked to be ahead of market demands and flavour trends. “In keeping with a global shift towards lower alcohol, lighter styles of wine and alcohol, we realised it was time to add a wine infusion to our portfolio and be at the forefront of this direction. It’s exciting to be working in a brand new category that gives the consumer choice as to how they choose to consume it.” Warburn Estates’ Sweet Lips Infusion brand has been at the centre of the company’s social media activity with separate Instagram and Facebook pages dedicated to the Infusions range racking up thousands of followers.

Brown Brothers Milawa Vineyard Revenue: $94.6m (+5.3%) Production: 17,587 tonnes Employees: 240

As one of Australia’s leading familyowned wine companies Brown Brothers has been making wine in Victoria for more than 125 years. For a company steeped in tradition, Brown Brothers has built a reputation for innovation by experimenting with a wide range of alternative grape varieties. Dean Carroll, Brown Brothers chief executive officer, called 2016 a positive year in terms of brand and financial performance. “Our business showed its strongest growth in recent years and importantly at profitable and sustainable levels,” Carroll said. Brown Brothers’ Tasmanian brands and Moscato, together with the emergence of Prosecco, contributed strongly to overall

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growth and enabled the company to introduce new wines to its dry wine range. Iconic Yarra Valley wine brand Innocent Bystander was also welcomed into the Brown Brothers portfolio last year with the sale finalised in May 2016. Carroll said in a sea of wine products, the Innocent Bystander brand stood out as a well-developed, consumer-connected brand with huge potential for growth. “The brand ticked many boxes for us in terms of its Yarra Valley home and proximity to Melbourne, the synergy across varieties with our current business, a strong awareness and recognition amongst Millennial wine consumers, a presence in the USA, and a solid profitability base,” he said. Also fresh to the company was the establishment of a new leadership team over the course of 2015 and 2016. Carroll, who took over as chief executive officer in December 2015, introduced two ‘heads of sales’ to focus on national markets and emerging markets. Carroll said Brown Brothers recognised the need for leadership in order to be successful across multiple markets. The company’s business strategy focused on Greater China as its lead country for export growth over the next five years. Additional people and resources have been added into the market to establish a strong consumer connection with the emerging younger demographic, particularly female. “We are seeing the emergence of wine as a consideration for that consumer beyond previous generations and only see this expanding in future years as the interests of western culture becomes more appealing and disposable income rises,” he said. Brown Brothers’ biggest market outside of Australia has been New Zealand and the company continued to experience growth in that market through its joint venture sales operation with Taylors Wines, called Taylor Brown. Despite the company’s positivity, there have been challenges for Brown Brothers over the past year. The wine market has been “extremely tough” according to Carroll, and abundantly crowded with per capita consumption in decline. Market growth has remained relatively low, meaning profitable expansion has required market share gains. “Competitive pressure from within wine and other categories for consumer attention and connection is at an all-time high,” Carroll said.

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Another challenge for Brown Brothers has been the company’s ability to prioritise and adequately resource growth opportunities. “We can see genuinely exciting opportunities for our business across often competing priorities so decision making around what we are not going to do to distract from our core aspirations is critical,” Carroll said. “Regardless we are optimistic and confident our goals are achievable with the ongoing efforts of our team at Brown Brothers and an increasing focus on the support and development of our people over the upcoming year.”

The Yalumba Wine Company

Revenue: Estimated to be more than $85m Production: 30,280 tonnes Employees: More than 200

Yalumba is the oldest family-owned winery in Australia, and prides itself on the history and culture associated with its brand. Located in the Barossa Valley, the winery was founded 1849 by British immigrant Samuel Smith, who named the property after the local Indigenous word for land all around. Yalumba is still family-owned today, with the fifth generation of Smiths now running the winery. Current owner and chairman of the company Robert Hill-Smith passed over the reins of CEO to Nick Waterman in 2015, making him the first non-family member to be appointed to the position. Over the past year China has been a huge focus for Yalumba. The company further developed its brands in China BY announcing a new distribution partnership with ASC Fine Wines in April 2016. The partnership has seen ASC, owned by Suntory Wine International, become the exclusive distributor in mainland China of wines from The Yalumba Wine Company and HillSmith Family Vineyards including its sister vineyard Nautilus Estate of Marlborough.

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For the past 11 years, Yalumba had been distributed in China by Summergate Fine Wines with Robert Hill-Smith stating that it was time for the company to align itself with ASC in China to further develop the Yalumba brands with a new partner. Yalumba also created history in August 2016, as the first and only wine company to showcase at the Qingdao Beer Festival, the world’s second largest international beer and food festival held in Shandong Province, China. Nick Waterman, Yalumba managing director, said China was important for the entire Australian wine industry. “Recently China elevated its position to become the second largest market for Australian wine exports, by value, behind USA and is predicted to become the largest market, by value, in the foreseeable future,” he said. Locally, Yalumba has been displaying global leadership by incorporating end-toend sustainability into their winemaking productions.  The company signed a 10-year power purchase agreement with energy supplier AGL to install a 1.4 megawatt solar panels system across its three Barossa sites (the Angaston winery, Oxford Landing winery and the Yalumba Nursery). With hopes to cut annual energy costs by 20 per cent, Nick Waterman said sustainability was key to the family-run business. “It is an exciting project and one that will deliver us significant savings, as well as being consistent with our corporate focus on sustainability,” Waterman said.

The Tahbilk Group Revenue: $69 million Production: NA Employees: 214

The Tahbilk Group rounded out a cracking 2016, with revenue sales up approximately 11 per cent to $69.3m compared to $62.2m last year. Alister Purbrick, The Tahbilk Group chief executive, said the weakening Australian dollar paired with careful company strategy has enabled the wine business to achieve impressive results. The Tahbilk Group has adequate infrastructure and production resources to achieve substantially greater sales with minimal further capital expenditure. “Therefore, the focus for the past three years has been on securing product and service sales growth as distinct from margin growth which has been non-existent except for exchange rate improvements,” Purbrick said. The dramatic weakening of the Australian dollar against the currencies of most of Tahbilk’s major markets has been a key change for the wine company. This has already

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Grapegrower 20170405.indd & Winemaker M333_DMA35_2010_BRIXBAUME_59x272Strip 05/04/2017 1 3313:34

Australia’s largest

wine companies increased product and contract bottling sales – and the full positive impact of this will be seen in 2017 and beyond, as long as the Australian dollar holds its current value. Production was also on the rise for Tahbilk Group, with cases up approximately three per cent compared to last year. Purbrick said his wine company’s improved performance in 2016 was due to higher exports, especially into China. “It was all organic growth,” he said. The company has also recently been searching for greater sustainability solutions after becoming the first Australian winery to be certified as ‘carboNZero’. What started out as an audit of the carbon footprint is now delivering more value – providing a benchmarking program to measure the success of environmental projects and their subsequent bottom line savings. The company continues to explore ways to expand its renewable energy usage and look for more efficient equipment in the winery and on the farm as well as turn the attention on supplier relationships and any extra efficiency opportunities.

Kingston Estate Wines

Revenue: Estimated to be more than $55m Production: 85,000 Employees: 158

Kingston Estate Wines has grown to become one of Australia’s largest wineries, producing wines from commercial through to ultra-premium and exporting them across the world. With more than 5000 acres of company owned vineyards in

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South Australia and Victoria as well as a state-of-the-art winery in Kingston-On-Murray, the company prides itself on being a ‘solutions focused exporter’. Kingston Estate Wines added two new vineyards to its already expansive portfolio last year, with Wrights Bay Vineyard in the Limestone Coast and Lake Marmal in Central Victoria. The company described the purchase of Wrights Bay Vineyard as “an opportunity to build on a significant increase in demand for super premium wines in export markets”. Securing the future supply of Lake Marmal vineyard also offered exciting new styles for Kingston Estate Wines. Bill Moularadellis, Kingston Estate Wines managing director, said the company has seen significant growth potential over the past year due to the weakening Australian dollar. “China and North America continue to show great growth opportunity offsetting the difficulties being experienced in the UK that has been brought about by the significant exchange rate movement,” Moularadellis said. Growth in Australian export values should continue this year, according to Moularadellis, who said Kingston Estate Wines has been positioned to optimise value growth from both warm and cool climate regional vineyards. However, Moularadellis said the long-awaited Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) reforms announced in December could have significant bearing on future international opportunities for Australian wine. “In 2016 we finally reached agreement as an industry and with Government to reform the WET legislation,” he said. “The compromise reached however, shall continue to provide a distortion and undermine the full potential of our export opportunity. Some 2,000 individual producers will continue to try and squeeze into the domestic market motivated by a 29 per cent subsidy, rather than maximising the depth and personality of Australia’s international fine wine reputation and opportunity.”

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Angove Family Winemakers Revenue: Estimated to be more than $50 million Production: 23,000 tonnes Employees: 158

Angove Family Winemakers celebrated 130 years as a family owned and operated wine company in 2016. The milestone year marked major changes for the business with John Angove retiring as managing director after many years at the helm. John handed the reigns to two of his children, Victoria and Richard Angove, who have taken over as joint managing directors while he remains chairman. Victoria and Richard said although Angove Family Winemakers had an impressive history, they were looking forward to the future. “It is really important to recognise the enormously hard work our father John has made over many years, not to mention our grandfather, great grandfather and his father before him,” Victoria Angove said. “While the company has an incredible history that should be celebrated, the future is where the focus is and as the fifth generation of the business we are injecting renewed energy and focus on the South Australian company.” With a network of wine businesses, Angove Family Winemakers remains one of Australia’s most diverse wine companies. As well as owning two vineyards, a commercial winery, micro-winery and a bottling and warehousing facility, Angove runs Vintage House Wine and Spirits, a national distribution operation. Vintage House Wine and Spirits represents both the Angove brands and more than 20

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Australia’s largest

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other Australian and international wine and spirit brands in Australia. Recently, the company has been focusing on organic viticulture and winemaking, with promising signs of market growth. Vanessa Angove said business has been sound nationally despite the “very challenging” trading environment. The company has continued to invest heavily in Angove’s Warboys Vineyard in the heart of McLaren Vale as organic wine has been a priority with sales soaring into double digit growth within Australia. Described by Richard Angove as one of the family’s “nearest and dearest”, Warboys Vineyard has been certified and is managed with bio-dynamic and organic farming practices. “For us, organics is all about responsible farming and soil health,” Richard said. “At the end of the day grapes derive their flavour from the soil in which they grow - our aim is to have the healthiest soil we possibly can, this means grapes of the highest flavour and wines that speak of where they are grown.” Building on local success, Victoria said Angove’s recent export activities have also shown some encouraging signs. The company has been focussed on China, the USA and Canada. “China’s well-publicised love for Australian wine continues and we have appointed a new regional export manager to help continue to push this further. The UK and Europe continue to be challenging, though we work hard in these markets and see potential opportunities emerging thanks to Brexit – though it is early days.” Looking to the year ahead, Angove Family Winemakers has some exciting updates in the making with plans to refresh packaging across much of the Angove wine range, as well as the family’s McLaren Vale cellar door.

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Qualia Wine Services Revenue: Estimated at $39 million Production: 50,000 tonnes Employees: NA

There have been suggestions that Qualia Wine Services, based at Irymple (near Mildura in Victoria) has plans to expand its winery capacity to 75,000 tonnes. If this was to take place it would be another positive sign in the recovery of the Australian wine industry. Not long after Qualia Wine Services was founded in December 2009, when the assets of Neqtar Wines were acquired, the business was exporting 80% of its production. The company is looking to regain that export share, having dipped to 50% about five years ago and recovered to 70% more recently. Whether the company can move away from shipping in bulk will be interesting to watch, as during the previous export peak just 20% was sent in bulk. The large wine business is privately owned, supplies customers in 25 countries and prides itself on customer service and quality wine production. About 40% of the production is sourced from the company’s 2200 hectares of vineyards, the rest sourced from a base of more than 100 grapegrowers, mostly from within the Murray Darling region. The portfolio of wine brands is not well known within the Australian grape and wine community, but includes: Little Eden, Barramundi, Inspired Company, The Spee’Wah and Calder Grove.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

The business model works by outsourcing all non-core, nonwinemaking functions in order to offer greater flexibility and superior economy to customers. It also producers 36.5 Baume, heat and cold stable neutral and varietal concentrate which is shipped frozen or refrigerated. Despite the size and nature of the business, CEO John Pezzaniti works hands-on as a winemaker. The 2017 vintage was Pezzaniti’s 21st and he manages facilities that include 50 million litres of wine storage available across two winemaking sites as well as a bottling facility with a capacity of 39,600 bottles per line, per shift, per day.

Zilzie Wines

Revenue: Estimated at more than $35 million Production: 52,552 tonnes Employees: 45 core team, up to 100 during vintage

After nearly three decades of growing grapes for some of Australia’s best known wine brands, the Zilzie winery was built in 1999 by Ian and Ros Forbes together with sons Steven and Andrew. The first vintage released under the Zilzie name came a year later. The company has come a long way since then, with the winery tripling in capacity and its range growing from humble beginnings to now include consumer favourites such as Pinot Grigio, Moscato and Rosé. Andrew Forbes, Zilzie Wines managing director, said the company’s core strategy was sustainable business for its winery and growers. “This relies on us continually adjusting and balancing our three key business streams of bulk wine supply, contract processing/storage and our Zilzie brands, as each contribute their own unique benefits to the long term health of the business,” Forbes said. While the Australian wine industry has remained a dynamic playing field, the future looked positive for Zilzie wines as the company embraced innovation and explored exciting new opportunities. Forbes said staying agile and reading the play was key, but Zilzie’s continued growth was directly attributable to service, quality and building long term relationships with key players in the industry around the world. Zilzie Wines has enjoyed growth in both the domestic and export markets over the past 12 months, particularly with China. The company has also been exploring and developing new relationships in markets where consumers have been showing a renewed interest in Australian wines. Forbes attributed most of the company’s success to its long-serving team of dedicated employees, who he said were incredibly passionate about the Zilzie brand and the industry as a whole. “They continue to embrace new technology, innovation and best practice - always exploring opportunities to improve quality, reduce cost and become more efficient,” Forbes said. In addition to installing new technology and equipment focussed on improving quality and process flow in the winery, 2017 will see Zilzie Wines develop and roll out at least three April 2017 – Issue 639

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Australia’s largest

wine companies new IT suites to build on positive team energy, improve work flow and enhance the company’s brand message.

Andrew Peace Wines Revenue: NA Production: 29,000 tonnes Employees: 100

From humble beginnings in 1996 with a grape intake of 1711 tonnes, Andrew Peace Wines has grown to be one of Australia’s largest family owned wineries crushing over 30,000 tonnes per year. The estate was bought by Andrew Peace’s dad in 1980 after he drove by the property, which was much smaller then, and decided to buy it as a means to escape the big city life on weekends. A quarter of a century on from planting his first block, Andrew Peace has remained at the helm of the company as winemaker and despite expanding steadily, the estate has continued to be family owned with several members involved it its running. All of the company’s wine is manufactured on its site in Piangil, using grapes from its Victorian vineyards in Piangil and Robinvale. Andrew Peace Wines’ vineyards take up over 270 hectares, with Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon making up its biggest plantings. The vineyard also includes Chardonnay, Colombard, Crouchen, Gordo, Grenache, Malbec, Mataro, Merlot, Pinot Gris, Riesling, Ruby Cabernet, Sangiovese, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Tempranillo and Viognier. Diversification in farming has led to 3000 acres of irrigated farmland over and above the 1250 acres of vineyards in Piangil. Both summer and winter crops have been grown and harvested for sale to both domestic and international markets. The company’s other agricultural pursuits include pumpkins, a herd of goats and family of pigs who enjoy the grape marc spoils during harvest time. In the past year, Andrew Peace Wines has focused the majority of its export resources on the US. In an uncertain market, Andrew Peace said profitability has been one of the biggest challenges. “The wine industry is now on the up,” he said. “Signs are looking positive.” In 2016, Andrew Peace Wines also won the Business Victoria Growth Sector Award for Food and Fibre Processing. The company was recognised for being innovative enough to remain profitable in the extremely competitive Australian wine industry.

Idyll Wine Co.

Revenue: NA Production: 19,500 tonnes Total number of employees: 100

The Idyll Wine Co. is located in the Moorabool Valley, 15 minutes west of Geelong, Victoria. The state-of-the-art

Grapegrower & Winemaker

winemaking and bottling facility is nestled among vineyards established in 1966 by Daryl and Nini Sefton, which was one of the first vineyards to be planted following the decimation of the local wine industry by phylloxera in the late 19th century. Idyll Wine Co. is a Costa Asset Management company – a privately-owned Australian company with a large and diverse range of assets focusing on developing, managing and sustaining capital across a portfolio of agriculture, private equity and property assets. Before Costa Asset Management acquired the winery it was owned by the Littore Family and it had been a significant own-brand supplier to the Coles group (including First Choice, Liquorland and Vintage Cellars). One of the wines made for Liquorland by the Idyll Wine Co made headlines in 2016 for its colour. The Blue Bird, a blend of white grapes (predominantly Moscato) with indigo food colouring, followed the blue wine trend from Europe. Andrew Byers, Idyll Wine Co commercial manager, told The Herald Sun the wine would appeal to millennial drinkers and those looking to try something different. “We initially thought ‘Why?’ but when we bandied the idea around, we got genuinely excited about it,” he said. “It’s something out of the box. People who don’t usually drink wine will find this easy to drink and surprisingly, it tastes better than you’d imagine. The colour breaks down any wine snobbery and it’s a bit innovative and fun.” Liquorland spokesman Blair Speedy said it was something that captured lots of social media attention. “It’s unconventional and striking in hue and looks good in a photo,” Speedy said A blue wine release certainly fits the company’s philosophies to “delivering wines made with the consumer in mind” and to “work closely with our trade partners to develop wines that are modern and relevant”.

Berton Vineyards Revenue: $27.8m Production: 17,779 tonnes Employees: 55-70 (seasonal)

Berton Vineyards was established in 1995 with the planting of 35 acres of Shiraz, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc in High Eden, Eden Valley South Australia. Since then, the company has grown exponentially to become one of the largest wine business in Australia. With a contemporary winery located in Yenda, and a further 1500 acres of vineyards in the Riverina region, the team behind Berton Vineyards has grown from six to more than 50 in the past 12 years. Bob Berton, the managing director of Berton Vineyards, said the company has remained consistent over the past year. “We did acquire a new vineyard during the year, but apart from that everything has been very stable,” he said. Berton said one of the company’s biggest challenges has been building stock levels up as the Australian wine industry braces for major changes. “Australia is transitioning from supply led conditions to either equilibrium or demand led,” Berton said. “Total vineyard

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April 2017 – Issue 639

Vintessential Enzyme Testing Kits available now. area is shrinking and export sales are rising so fruit is becoming more difficult to acquire. Fruit prices are likely to rise and low priced, poor margin wines will need to increase in price or will be discontinued.”

Wine Insights

Based in the heart of the Riverina wine district of New South Wales, Wine Insights’ Beelgara winery was originally built in 1930 by Italian immigrants. In 2001, it was purchased by the Toohey family who have a history as liquor merchants dating back to 1900. Together with a series of key wine company acquisitions, Wine Insights forged new partnerships with other wineries by 2012. Today, the company reflects a diverse range of wine brands and services with a mission to craft flavoursome, approachable wines. The biggest news for Wine Insights over the past financial broke on June 30, 2015 with the purchase of the Cumulus winery in Orange, NSW. The Cumulus vineyard has a range of elevations, terrains, volcanic soils and aspects, which combined with the area’s high altitude, intense sunlight and cool climate should deliver wines with bright fruit flavours and subtle elegance. Peter Toohey, Wine Insights managing director, said the other key company developments fell under an overarching strategy of “pathway to premium”. “Europe and the USA remain strong markets for our brands with China continuing to grow strongly year on year as our strategic supply agreements gain traction,” Toohey said. Wine Insights continued to maintain a strong focus on the ‘on-trade sales channel’, with 70 per cent of the company’s domestic sales in this channel. By comparison Wine Insights now sells 25 per cent of its domestic sales into the ‘off-trade’, or retail market channel, as increased competition and the proliferation of own-brand wines has continued to place downward pressure on supplier margins. “Our continued focus on the business-to-consumer channel has seen the development of multiple internet sales portals that have helped deliver double digit growth in this channel,” Toohey said. Over the next year, Wine Insights plans to realign its grape intake to source from predominantly premium Orange and Central Ranges grapegrowing regions. All production will now be completed at the company’s newly acquired 10,000 tonne full integrated winery facility in Cudal, NSW. April 2017 – Issue 639

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Revenue: NA Production: Estimated at 17,000 tonnes Total number of employees: 45

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Australia’s largest

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Calabria Family Wines Revenue: $20 million Production: 16,679 tonnes Employees: NA

Late in of 2016 Calabria Family Wines announced it has acquired ownership of a large Riverina facility located in Griffith. The winery, includes more than 18 million litres of storage capacity, 3000 square metres of cold store warehousing

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and 22,000 tonnes of crushing capacity. The original winery was built by the Italian company ‘Cinzano’ in 1976, which later became the ASX listed Cranswick Estate. In 2006 the world’s third largest winemaker The Wine Group purchased the site. “This acquisition is a new chapter for our family and we are very excited to extend our reach to new and existing markets globally within the wine industry,” said Michael Calabria, the general manager of the family company. The purchase follows the Calabria family’s recent diversification into the Barossa Valley where it operates three premium vineyards and a cellar door which will be opened in 2019 (currently leased to an independent winery group). The purchase of the additional winemaking facility means Calabria Family Wines now has a total storage capacity of more than 40 million litres and has two bottling lines with the capability to produce over two million cases annually pushing Calabria to become one of the largest family-owned wineries in Australia. Andrew Calabria, the sales and marketing manager, said he believed the winery’s distribution reach provided an opportunity to increase sales across its export markets, as the company exports 70 per cent of its production to 38 different countries. “We are fortunate to have a great footprint in export markets and this expansion allows us to concentrate on supply for our brands which have been growing at a significant rate,” Calabria said. Calabria Family Wines was established by Francesco and Elizabeth Calabria in the Riverina in 1945. In 2010, the family expanded into the Barossa Valley when it purchased the original Hahn vineyard, planted in 1914. It now owns three different sites around the valley consisting of over 40 hectares of land and vineyards. “As a family, we made a firm decision to align ourselves with a strong Australian region and the final place we decided on was the iconic Barossa Valley. We are very excited of what we have achieved over the past five years and we will endeavour to continue this success well into the next generation of the Calabria Family,” said Andrew Calabria. In October, Calabria Family Wines launched its Grand Reserve Barossa Valley Shiraz, which retails at $175 a bottle. Not long after this release Emma Norbiato was announced as the ‘winemaker of the year’ in the 2016 Australian Women in Wine Awards.

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New Zealands’s largest

wine companies

The New Zealand Wine Industry: Towards $2 billion by 2020 THE CLEAR OBJECTIVE for New Zealand Winegrowers is to see the country’s wine exports increase to $2 billion by 2020. While things are progressing well, highlighted by growth to the US, there is still a mountain to climb. New Zealand wine exports have reached a record high and now stand at $1.61 billion up 5% for the year ending January 2017. New Zealand wine is exported to more than 90 countries, and is New Zealand’s seventh largest export good. However, if export growth continues to match the progress achieved in the 12 months to January, the $2billion by 2020 target won’t quite be reached. Growth will need to average 7.5% across the next three years for exports to top $2 billion. One market has been looking likely to do its part in achieving the goal – the value of New Zealand wine imported into the US growing significantly in the past 12 months according to a recent Gomberg Fredrikson Report. In 2016 the total value of New Zealand wine imported into the US reached US$400 million, which means only Italy (US$1,960 million) and France (US$1,589 million) are delivering more. “To be third ranking in terms of value in the world’s largest wine market is outstanding, especially given New Zealand produces less than one per cent

2016 AT A GLANCE Number of wineries: 675 Number of growers: 747 Producing area: 36,192 hectares Tonnes crushed: 436,000 of the world’s wine”, said Philip Gregan, New Zealand Winegrowers CEO. Demand is strong from the US at the moment, but what will be an achievable growth target for that market? The 26% jump recorded in 2015 would not seem be a sustainable annual target. Looking behind the numbers, the export success for New Zealand wine is overwhelmingly a story about Sauvignon Blanc, and the US growth has been at a faster rate than the total market said Jon Moramarco, owner of the Gomberg Fredrikson Report. “The growth doesn’t surprise me, just because of the quality and value of what New Zealand has to offer.” The ‘clean and green’ credentials of New Zealand no doubt help give the positive wine attributes a boost – and New Zealand Winegrowers is not sitting back and taken this for granted. This year marked the release of the ever report on the wine sector’s achievements in sustainability. The report presents data collected from vineyard and winery

members of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand – one of the first and worldleading sustainability programs in the international wine sector. The Sustainability Report highlights actions undertaken by the wine industry such as enhancing biodiversity, reducing and recycling by-products, optimising water and energy use, investing in people, protecting soil, and reducing agrichemical use. In 2016, 98 per cent of New Zealand’s vineyard area was certified by Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, and around seven per cent of vineyards operated under certified organic programs, according to Philip Gregan. “Wine producers from north to south are committed to protecting the unique places that make New Zealand’s famous wines,” he said. “The Report illustrates the widespread participation in Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand, and highlights some of the direct benefits of the program.” “A core philosophy of the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand program is continual improvement and the data presented in this Report will help us benchmark our achievements in the coming years.” With firm and sustainable foundations, the ambition 2020 export target just might become a reality.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

New Zealands’s largest

wine companies

The five largest NZ wine companies IN THE PAST, the Grapegrower & Winemaker has focussed on presenting the TOP FIVE New Zealand wine brands by sales revenue. However, as three of the TOP FIVE are winemaking divisions of larger international companies it has become increasingly difficult to find the sales revenue figures. In this year’s report we have included numbers where they were available, but it was not possible to accurately estimate the ranking from one-to-five. We simply present the significant news from the five largest wine brands – in alphabetical orde

Anthony Walkenhorst, chief winemaker at Kim Crawford Wines

CONSTELLATION NEW ZEALAND Constellation Brands is New Zealand’s number one wine company by sales volume and exports. The wines account for approximately 12 per cent of New Zealand’s annual wine harvest, and about 80% of the total volume is exported each year – predominately to North America, New Zealand’s largest wine market. The parent company (NYSE: STZ and

STZ.B) is a Fortune 500 company and a leading international producer and marketer of beer, wine and spirits with operations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, New Zealand and Italy. As the largest exporter of New Zealand wine, the Kim Crawford, Nobilo and Monkey Bay wines reach more than 75 countries across the globe. Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc is the number one Sauvignon Blanc and New Zealand wine sold in the United States. Kim Crawford was also awarded Wine Enthusiast’s 2016 New World Winery of the Year. Constellation Brands recently received the New Zealand Food Awards 2016 Business Innovation Award for the VNO Lighter range – which is a lower alcohol, lower calorie range of wines. Simon Towns took the reins as president and managing director in May 2016, when Sam Glaetzer was promoted to senior vice president of winemaking and production in the US, where he will oversee wine and spirits production, vineyard operations, spirits operations and winemaking. Towns, originally from Auckland, returns home to New Zealand after

serving as senior vice president of strategy and development for Constellation in the US, and leading growth strategies for several food and beverage brands internationally. Glaetzer said these management changes, with the pair swapping US and New Zealand roles, the ties between the New Zealand business and parent company would be strengthened. “With the growth of our New Zealand business and our commitment to delivering quality and value in every bottle, this change will allow us to further focus our operations on safety, quality and customer care,” Glaetzer says. Like New Zealand Winemakers, Constellation Brands NZ also has a vision for 2020 – a goal to raise depletions to 60 million bottles and produce 60,000 tonnes of grapes.

DELEGAT GROUP

The Delegat Group achieved Operating Revenue of $242.7 million on global case sales of 2,411,000 in its 2016 financial year. Revenue was up $30.8 million on last year primarily due to global case sales

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April 2017 – Issue 639

being 9% higher along with a small favourable impact of foreign exchange rate changes. “For the first time the Group sold more than one million cases in North America,” said Graeme Lord, Delegat Group managing director. “Sales continue to be well diversified by market with 42% in North America, 29% in the Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific region, and 29% in Europe including the United Kingdom.” According to the annual report, the Delegat Group achieved a record global harvest of 35,837 tonnes from the 2016 vintage. The New Zealand harvest was 33,236 tonnes, up 33% on the low yielding 2015 vintage. The Australia harvest for Barossa Valley Estate was 2,601 tonnes, which was up 56% on the previous year. The inaugural vintage for the new winery in Hawke’s Bay was “a great success” according to reports. Another NZ wine company with a clear strategic goal, the Delegat Group aims to continue building as a leading global premium wine company and has a target to grow sales by 41% to more than 3.4 million cases across the next five years.

LION

It is difficult to gauge the wine specifics from the group numbers as the company does reveal a breakdown by different divisions (though total sales revenue, across the group, was listed as $2,404 million).

April 2017 – Issue 639

Stuart Irvine, Lion CEO

However, the biggest news from the wine division came in November when it announced Accolade Wines had acquired Lions’ Australian wine business. The sale included Lion’s four Australian wineries, including all plant and equipment, land and vineyards, six brands (Petaluma, Croser, St Hallett, Knappstein, Stonier and Tatachilla), inventory as well the on-and-off-premise distribution network (Fine Wine Partners). “The sale price and the specific terms and conditions are confidential,” Lion confirmed in a statement. However, some news reports suggested the sale price was around $100 million. At the time of the sale, Stuart Irvine Lion CEO said the company had been “unable to prioritise the investment required to grow Fine Wine Partners to a size justifying its fixed cost base”. “With the improvement in market

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conditions we have come to the decision that this is the right time to realise a fair price for the business,” Irvine said. Lion will retain its wine businesses in both New Zealand and the United States given the importance of those assets for its New Zealand domestic business and its plans to grow its presence in the international alcohol market via Lion global markets. “Lion’s solid performance in what is a highly competitive global and domestic marketplace highlights the underlying strength of our core business and reflects our ongoing investment in brands and innovation,” Irvine said. Within New Zealand, Lion reported that “premiumisation and innovation” were driving value back into the market. Total volumes in Lion’s beer, spirits and wine business increased by one per cent, while sales revenues increased by five per cent. (While there was mention of growth being fuelled by innovation and a strong performance in the craft beer category – there was no breakdown of the figures by individual category). Amidst highly competitive market conditions, Lion’s underlying net sales revenue decreased slightly. However, with a focus on higher-value product categories and cost management, the group delivered an increase in underlying operating earnings offset the sales revenue dip. Lion has also recently acquired the distribution rights for Invivo wine, which will complement the existing wine portfolio.

Grapegrower & Winemaker

New Zealands’s largest

wine companies

Villa Maria’s Marlborough Winery

PERNOD RICARD WINEMAKERS NEW ZEALAND Pernod Ricard New Zealand reported its annual profit had that more than doubled when announcing its latest financial results – but warned the full financial impact of the 7.8 magnitude Kaikoura earthquake which impacted the country in November was yet completely understood.

“The financial impact of the earthquake is still being assessed and cannot reliably be measured at this time,” the company announced (one example of the uncertainty is the damage at the Brancott Estate winery, in Blenheim, that was subject to an insurance claim). Meanwhile, the liquor group’s Millstream Equities posted a profit of $7.4 million in the year ended June 30, which more than double the result from the one year earlier. Revenue rose by $13 million to top $240 million. However, the gains were offset by a jump in operating expenses – at $19.6 million compared to $10.1 million the previous year, attributed to increases in management fees, as well as maintenance. No dividend was paid back to the parent company, but accumulated losses improved by $7 million to sit at $828 million.

VILLA MARIA The biggest news out of Villa Maria in recent times (apart from the seemingly constant wine accolades) was the announcement it was setting up its own Australian-based sales and distribution operation in early 2017. The move comes following Accolade Wines’ purchase of Fine Wine Partners, which was the Villa Maria distributor. The winery hopes that the move to direct distribution will give it greater flexibility with its marketing and distribution, help continue to grow its presence in Australia and get the winery closer to its customers. George Fistonich, Villa Maria founder and owner said the wine brand had a very successful relationship with Fine

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Wine Partners across 12 years. “With their support, Villa Maria has become one of the largest New Zealand wine brands in Australia and has a very solid reputation, validated by many awards including Winestate’s New Zealand Winery of the Year, which we’ve won 15 out of 19 years,” Fistonich said. Once the direct distribution model was firmly established in Australia, the company would assess the opportunities for growth – but in the meantime it would focus on the Reserve and Single Vineyard wines in both the on- and offpremise. “We see the potential to grow significantly in Australia. Because we are focusing on a limited number of brands with different strategies, we can be very efficient and dedicated in all of our sales and marketing efforts. This is a huge opportunity to work more closely with our customers to ensure we are meeting their needs,” Fistonich said. New Zealand’s most awarded winery maintains a focus on quality, innovation and sustainability – for example Villa Maria has been a member of Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand for more than 20 years, since the program’s inception in 1995. More recently it joined CEMARS, an internationally recognised carbon reduction program, and 27 per cent of its vineyards are certified organic – with reports there will be a push to have its entire vineyard certified. In late breaking news, Villa Maria was rated among the world’s most respected wine brands according to the Top 50 list put out by Drinks International. The winery was first featured on the list in 2015 when it appeared at number four; it drifted to eighth in 2016 before rising back to fourth position on the latest list. April 2017 – Issue 639

Wine Australia for Australian Wine

Removing the haze from the bentonite dilemma Research Scientist Dr Jacqui McRae is watching over a small collection of wines stored at the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) with all the care and concern of a nervous winemaker. If all goes to plan, come June they will confirm her thinking on a way to streamline the often-laborious task of predicting haze formation in white wines so the correct amount of bentonite can be used to stabilise them. That may not, at first glance, appear to be a big issue. The wine sector has had an accepted way of doing things for more than 40 years, and it’s always possible to take an educated guess and tweak things later if you underestimated. Many winemakers do that to avoid the laborious bit.

It’s less clear if having to add extra bentonite at the end of the process adversely affects the wine compared to adding the correct amount the first time around, but again ‘We are trying to get Dr McRae says something with evidence some scientists and behind it that shows that if winemakers believe you cool for shorter periods phenolic compounds you’ll get just as good are removed. So why results.’ not get it right the first time around?

However, Dr McRae and her AWRI colleagues are convinced there are gains to be made in having a more scientifically proven methodology that takes less time. That was the driver for their four-year project, funded by Wine Australia, which is now coming to an end.

‘The biggest risk in taking a best guess is that you may add too much bentonite and overfine the wine’, she said. ‘Then you get a larger lees volume, so lose a lot more wine as it settles out, and there is the potential to remove aroma compounds. Some winemakers say there’s a stripped character to the wine if it has had too much bentonite added.’

April 2017 | www.wineaustralia.com

Haze is known as protein or heat instability and the accepted way to assess bentonite requirements is a heat test. The accepted method developed in 1973 is to heat wine samples to 80°C for 6 hours, then cool them overnight (cooling at 4°C) before returning them to room temperature. The turbidity of the samples is measured before and after heating and a wine is considered stable if the difference is below a certain level.

The original work was revisited in 2006 at the AWRI by a team lead by Dr Liz Waters and the recommended heating phase reduced to two hours, but Dr McRae believes the method could be further improved by refining the cooling step before making measurements. Sitting in temperature-controlled rooms on-site at the AWRI are bottles of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Viognier, Riesling, Chardonnay and Vermentino that have been bentonite-fined based on different heat tests – the traditional overnight cooling or cooled for shorter periods at different temperatures. ‘We are confident we can make some firm recommendations based on these trials because we have done a lot of preliminary work already’, Dr McRae said. ‘We are trying to get something with evidence behind it that shows that if you cool for shorter periods you’ll get just as good results. And hopefully that will encourage winemakers to do it.’

www.wineaustralia.com | April 2017

Helping growers beat the heat Investigating the impact of delayed pruning and canopy sprinklers Heat can cause viticulturists all manner of problems and Mike McCarthy and Victor Sadras are looking for weapons to help them fight back. A recently completed three-year project in South Australia – funded jointly by Wine Australia and the Australian Government through the ‘Filling the Research Gap’ programme – investigated the potential of using delayed pruning and evaporative cooling to counteract the impact of seemingly constant hot summers, with largely positive results. Dr McCarthy, a Principal Scientist with the South Australian Research & Development Institute* (SARDI), led the overall project (really two separate studies with a common aim), with Dr Sadras, a crop scientist at SARDI, leading the pruning trials. Heat not only hurts ripening fruit by disrupting the balance between sugar, colour and flavour and compromising regional characteristics, it compresses harvests, leading to logistical problems in the winery. ‘Wineries lack the harvesting and crushing capacity to deal with a narrowing harvest window, leading to fruit becoming overripe and a reduction in quality’, the project’s final report says. ‘The expansion of processing facilities places more strain on a capital-intensive industry. Viticultural practices are needed to deal with these challenges.’

‘Delayed pruning is environmentally and economically superior to double pruning and chemical treatments’, Dr Sadras said. Dr Sadras cautioned that results from Shiraz in Barossa cannot be extrapolated to other varieties and regions without previous tests. The second arm of the project produced slightly less clear-cut results. Previous research had suggested that successive hot nights, rather than days, cause permanent damage to vine canopies, often leaving leaves and berries scorched.

‘We run workshops with growers in places like Mildura and they say to me “the vineyards seem to be able to cope with one ‘Heat not only hurts hot day and a second ripening fruit by disrupting day okay, but if we have the balance between two or three consecutive sugar, colour and flavour hot nights that’s when and compromising we’re starting to see the regional characteristics, impact of heatwaves”’, it compresses harvests, Dr McCarthy said.

Late pruning certainly appears to tick all the boxes in that regard. Detailed trials over three vintages with Shiraz at SARDI’s experimental vineyard leading to logistical at Nuriootpa in the ‘The other thing they’re problems in the winery.’ Barossa Valley and in saying is that if they a nearby commercial have a heatwave in vineyard showed its potential to shift January or early February the nights phenology and delay grape maturity by are short in terms of darkness and that up to two weeks. doesn’t give the vines a chance to restore their turgor before the next day.’ Importantly, there was no negative – and sometimes a positive – impact on To test the effectiveness of using yield, wine quality or cost of production. under- and over-canopy sprinklers to Repeated late pruning, up to three lower vineyard temperatures through successive seasons, caused no issues in evaporative cooling, three large field vigorous vines under Barossa conditions, experiments were set up – two in the and the process ‘fitted well with standard Riverland and one in Coonawarra. commercial vineyard practices’.

April 2017 | www.wineaustralia.com

Cost-effectiveness also was an issue, given that the concept allows valuable water to deliberately evaporate. Large amounts of data were generated during some significant heatwaves over the summer of 2015–16 but, somewhat surprisingly, the evaporative cooling had only a minor impact at best on the temperature and humidity in the bunch zone and vine canopy. It did, however, have a significant yet currently unexplained impact on the size and quality of the harvest. In the Riverland, running under-canopy sprinklers for just six nights reduced yield losses by 20 to 30 per cent. Early figures for the 2017 harvest show similar trends. ‘The value of the additional crop far outweighed the cost of the water used for cooling’, Dr McCarthy said. ‘In addition, there was a significant increase in yeastavailable nitrogen (YAN) in must, which resulted in more rapid fermentation.’ There are also early indications that the cooling created differences in wine sensory attributes and the researchers expect to have more information about this soon. If you would like to know more, read the final reports at www.wineaustralia.com or contact Dr McCarthy about the cooling trials (michael.McCarthy@sa.gov.au) or Dr Sadras about the pruning trials (victor.sadras@sa.gov.au). * SARDI is a division of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA).

Researcher in focus: Dr Anna Crump The science behind understanding consumer tastes Anna Crump is a foodie who not only knows what she likes to eat and drink, she knows why. ‘It probably makes me sound really boring at dinner parties when I start describing the sensory attributes of broccoli, but I love it’, she said. ‘I also really like the link between identifying the chemical compound responsible for certain aromas and flavours and how you can relate that back to sector production practices, which can then be tailored to increase or decrease certain compounds to give a completely different outcome.’ That has been Anna’s life – professionally and personally – for the past eight years or so, moving from wine to food then back to wine in her current role as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Adelaide. After completing an honours degree in food science and nutrition in Queensland, Anna moved south to begin a PhD – the only way you can gain a formal qualification in sensory methodology in Australia. Her supervisor suggested a project looking at consumer attitudes to oak in wine and Wine Australia funded a scholarship to support the work. ‘It’s an area that had never really been looked at’, she said. ‘Winemakers spend a lot of money on oak barrels but no-one had asked consumers whether they like oak characters in wine and if so, how highly they rate it. Are they willing to pay more to get it?

facility, where she was responsible for designing and conducting consumer acceptability and trained panel testing of food and beverage products. That work had an even greater consumer and production focus. Anna worked with local producers who might, for example, want to add a new product to their range or understand how consumers were likely to react to changes, such as reducing salt or sugar. But wine came calling again; another of Anna’s former PhD supervisors lured her back to the university to deliver a project to create a niche for Riverland wine producers in the Chinese market through the development of a consumerdriven wine product.

‘I’d always wanted to do cross-cultural ‘We found that younger consumers studies because that’s where sensory is do like oak characters but aren’t too heading, and this was a perfect example concerned if they of that’, she said. come from a $1500 ‘Everything is global ‘Winemakers spend a lot of French barrel or and local products money on oak barrels but whether you’ve just no-one had asked consumers are being exported thrown some French all over the world whether they like oak oak chips into the mix. so you’ve got to characters in wine and if so, To relate that back to make sure that the how highly they rate it. Are producers, we could consumers in the show that if your target they willing to pay more to other countries get it?’ market is the younger are going to be drinker, you need not accepting of the spend money on a product. barrel.’ ‘It’s been great learning about the While writing up her PhD, Anna was Chinese culture and how that influences offered a job managing the South what they will and won’t consume. Australian Research and Development Institute* (SARDI) sensory testing

‘The stakeholder engagement through Riverland Wine has ensured the project is aligned with the sector’s priorities, with clear and tangible benefits. Witnessing first-hand the sense of empowerment this has given the region is truly amazing.’ Anna says she loves wine but would also have been happy to stay with the subject of her Honours work – chocolate. ‘In that project, I looked at the different geographical origins of the cocoa beans. The industry standard is African, which has quite a simple flavour profile, but you look at Asia and they’ve got completely different drying processes for the beans. They dry them over an open fire, leading to smoky coffee characters in the chocolate. It’s fascinating.’ The buzz is in using what you know. ‘If I’m applying sensory and consumer methodologies to something interesting and useful, I’m happy’, she said.

Applications for Wine Australia’s PhD and Master’s by Research scholarships open in October. For more information visit www.wineaustralia.com/research/ applying-for-funding

* SARDI is a division of Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA).

www.wineaustralia.com | April 2017

Apply for a Wine Australia travel bursary Wine Australia is inviting the Australian grape and wine community to apply for a travel and visiting scholar bursary by Friday 7 April 2017.

provide a professional development opportunity and also encourage recipients to share the knowledge they gain with others in the grape and wine community.

Applications are accepted for travel ‘Participating in professional education that commences between 1 July and programs and learning from others in 31 December 2017 and bursaries can the international research community is fund travel, study tours or conferences an important way to supplement existing to develop your professional knowledge research and develop the knowledge and network with and skills of our sector’, the international ‘Participating in professional she said. research education programs and ‘We see it as an community. learning from others in equally important part the international research Opportunities are of the experience that community is an important also available to information gleaned by way to supplement existing bring international successful applicants research and develop the experts to is shared with the rest knowledge and skills of our Australia to of our grape and wine sector’ participate in community so that workshops, everyone can benefit meetings, conferences, symposia from the latest wine sector R&D from or research projects through Wine across the world. Australia’s visiting scholar bursaries. ‘Successful applicants for bursaries Wine Australia’s General Manager of will be those who can highlight the Research, Development and Extension opportunity for their own professional Dr Liz Waters says the bursaries development, anticipated benefits for

the sector and how the information will be widely disseminated.’ Each year, Wine Australia invests in travel bursaries and in visiting scholar bursaries with applications open every six months. The application process gives preference to those who are currently making, or who are potentially able to make, a significant contribution to research and the travel must relate to their research interest and expertise. Applicants are advised to consult the Australian Grape and Wine Authority Strategic Plan 2015–2020 and the guidelines for both the travel and scholar bursaries when developing their applications, which are available on the Wine Australia website – www.wineaustralia.com. Bursary applications for travel that commences between 1 January and 30 June 2018 can be made from 1 September 2017.

Contribute to the Advancing Precision Agriculture to Decision Agriculture The Australian grape and wine community is invited to attend a workshop to address future needs and opportunities for big data systems and To register analytics support.

for Profit programme; Wine Australia is one of the supporting Research and Development Corporations.

now and in future business decisions impacting on agricultural productivity and profitability.

The Precision to Decision (P2D) project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D

In its initial phase, the P2D project is conducting a producer survey and a series of workshops across Australia to understand how data including data analytics and various data systems are currently used

A grape and wine sector focused workshop will be held on 27 April 2017 at the Novotel Barossa Valley Resort, 42 Pioneer Ave, Rowland Flat.

Wine Australia for Australian April 2017 | www.wineaustralia.com Wine

Wine Australia Industry House cnr Botanic & Hackney Roads Adelaide SA 5000 | PO Box 2733 Kent Town SA 5071 T: 08 8228 2000 | F: 08 8228 2066 | E: research@wineaustralia.com | W: www.wineaustralia.com

to attend the workshop on 27 April in the Barossa Valley, visit www.farminstitute.org.au/ P2Dproject

To register to attend the workshop or for more information on the P2D project visit www.farminstitute.org.au/P2Dproject

grapegrowing Trellis and end-post assemblies: Alternatives to CCA and Creosote The use of CCA (copper, chrome, arsenic) and Creosote treated timber products in viticulture has to stop. Sam Bowman reports on . WHETHER YOU LOOK at the eyesore of the stockpiles around the country (which are growing each year by 150,000 square metres); the cost of replacing five per cent of your posts each season; or the environmental impacts of using known carcinogens to cure posts we then grow a food product right next to… a sustainable alternative isn’t just a good idea for the industry, it’s a necessity. In March 2006 the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) banned the use of CCA products in schools and garden furniture due to the risk of contact transmission of the carcinogenic compounds to people. As early as 1999, Stilwell’s study of CCA treated decks showed that the soil beneath the decks contained as much as seven times the safe soil arsenic levels and in the study; and two out of five backyards or parks tested had enough arsenic to qualify as a “superfund site” which, if it was an industrial work site, would be deemed hazardous and quarantined. Regardless of the soil health issue due to stockpiling and the leaching of hazardous elements, there is still no economically and environmentally viable option to recycle the posts after they are

April 2017 – Issue 639

Brian O’Malley supervises the set up for the strainer trials.

stockpiled. Combustion is not an option due to the toxic fumes emitted, nor can they be turned into mulch. Landfill or re-use in similar situations is really the only option of disposal at this stage and although there are studies into their use in contained combustion for the

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production of energy, this is not a short to medium-term option. Following the EPA waste management plan guidelines which are “avoidance, reduction and re-use” we need an option that is economically and environmentally viable to replace treated wooden posts

Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

The strainer tests were carried out in McLaren Vale.

and avoid putting newly-created posts into the ground. Steel and recycled plastic post options have been available to the industry for decades and the uptake has been varied. I have personally trialled most of the intermediate post options on the market in many different soil types and climates and every time I have tended to look towards steel as the favoured choice. Asking colleagues what their steel preference is varies mostly due to ease of canopy management manipulation and again price is always a large determinant. Intermediates aside, there has not been a cost effective alternative for traditional Creosote and CCA strainers. Until now. I was lucky enough to be invited to road test the load-bearing capabilities of an array of steel and wood strainer options at a field site in McLaren Vale recently. I’ve used CCA posts in the past and there is no doubting their strength and cost effectiveness ($30 materials, $30 installation) so the main products I was interested in comparing included the following: - Eco Trellis Strainer ($70 materials, $30 installation) The Eco Trellis is produced by New Zealand Tube Mills and is a robust strainer option consisting of an intermediate post with a cable tie back and anchor. The patented footing plate provides an option for sandy soils. Looking at the installation, the tie back and anchor take

50 Grapegrower & Winemaker

additional time to install and will drive installation cost to $30 per end assembly if using a contractor; - Ocloc S Strainer ($45 materials, $15 installation) The Ocloc S is the new prototype strainer from Ocloc and provides an alternative to the steel systems already available that utilise a tie back and an anchor. Solid 3mm Galfan coated steel the ’V’ shaped strainer is rigid in the ground and easily glides through tough soil without auguring, lowering installation costs. Wires are attached via the slotted centre of the post and fixed with bolts eliminating knots and joins; - Warratah Maxi Strainer ($60.95 materials, $30 installation) The Waratah Maxi set up also employs the use of a tie back and anchor and utilises a gripfast post as the main load bearing post. Again like the Eco system the anchor and tie back add to installation time and the load bearing relies upon the bearing capability of the strained cable.

Ocloc load bearing trials February (Mclaren Vale, SA) Nigel Catt and Brian O’Malley from Ocvitti, the creators of the Ocloc system, invited me along to view their loadbearing trials involving an array of end assemblies on the market and also their new prototype strainer the Ocloc S. The trial was conducted in the loading yard of Leask Vineyards in Mclaren Vale in www.winetitles.com.au

soils typical of the region. A 10-tonne load capacitor was chained to the strainer and a seven-tonne forklift was used to simulate the strain of a full canopy; then pushed to their limit to see how much load the posts were capable of bearing before failure. Each test was carried out under the same conditions and recorded incrementally as load was put on the post. The results are as follows: Overall the standard of performance was high. The two clear leaders from the trial scenario are the Ocloc S strainer, in both strength and ease of installation, and the Eco-Trellis system. Talking with Ben Pridham, of Pridham Viticulture, I found out he has a company policy of only using steel posts (in both new vineyards and re-developments). He has seen fantastic results with the EcoTrellis Strainer design and has committed to use it in all new developments. He employs the use of a 1.5m screw with an eyelet as an anchor which is then strained with a 3.2mm cable to an Intermediate Eco-Trellis post. This set up eliminates the risk of breaking a strainer with machinery and as the load is bearing predominantly on the cable, it is a simple fix if there is a mechanical failure. In the trials conducted this method resulted in a cable break, but left the post and anchor unscathed (the cable can be restrained and the end assembly is repaired). The Ocloc S strainer looks like another robust and cost effective alternative to April 2017 – Issue 639

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grapegrowing Post

Depth

defelction(mm)/load(kgs)

Comments

8ft CCA Strainer 10yrs old

1.7 in 700 out

60/330

fail/348

Failed with relatively low weight

8ft CCA Strainer New

1.6 in 800 out

70/1500

fail/1900

Huge difference in old vs new. Impressive load bearing capacity

8ft Ocloc S strainer

1.6 in 800 out

49/610

fail/800

Failed at low load, convex orientation may assist load bearing

8ft Ocloc S strainer convex

1.6 in 800 out

95/1600

chain broke at 2000

Very impressive. Chain broke at 2000kg and post returned to original position

8ft JSC Arrow 2.4gal (US post)

900 in 1.7 out

fail/200

Broke easily. Low load bearing capability

2.1m Galvanised star dropper

500 in 1.6 out

fail/100

Failed with very little load.

Warratah maxi strainer with backstay

1.5 in 900 out

22/880

fail/880

Failure due to cable to backstay snapping, bend in post

Eco-trellis strainer with backstay

500mm in to sink plate

20/1400

fail/1400

Failure due to cable. Post handled very well anchor barely lifted

using Creosote or CCA treated posts. The load testing was very promising with very little deflection regardless of the load put on the post. In one instance, at the 2000kg point, the chain attached to the measurement device failed and the post returned to its original position with no visible damage. The intermediate Ocloc A post has already been adopted in many regions throughout the country. Speaking with Bleasdale Vineyards viticulturist Sarah Keough, who in Langhorne Creek has re-trellised a 70-year-old flood plain vineyard with the posts, she has been impressed with how the posts stood up even through six floods this season, showing even under extreme conditions, steel can be a great alternative to wood. Looking through the vineyard, there are no signs of the posts bending or early corrosion even with heavy waterlogging this season. It will be good to see the strainer in a working vineyard situation in the near future. It’s all very exciting and people should keep an eye out on what is happening in this space.

Only time will tell Corrosion remains the next factor which is yet to be proven. With the Eco-Trellis welded seam, I imagine that over time there might be some corrosion in the joins – as there might be on any other compromised points on either post. Time will tell as we have more vineyards established entirely with steel in varied climates and soil types. The results from the trial are promising and show that there are robust alternatives that are now also competitive in price to their wooden counterparts. Cost aside, we need to be looking at the long term sustainability of the infrastructure we are using in our vineyards and whatever the choice it should be towards long term thinking and clear direction of where we want to be in the next generation.

Eight different strainer post options were tested.

52 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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April 2017 – Issue 639

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grapegrowing

Revisiting vineyard scale After reports of increasing numbers of vineyard scale across the 2016/17 growing season there seems to be merit in revisiting a practical guide to dealing with this pest. This advice has been adapted from a CCW Fact Sheet (originally compiled by three former CCW viticultural officers: Dino Cotsaris, Peter Burne and Adam Pietsch). GRAPEVINE SCALE (Parthenolecanium persicae) has been relatively common in Riverland vineyards, but has been increasing in numbers throughout other regions in recent years. It was previously thought this was the only scale species present in winegrape vines, but additional research has indicated that frosted scale (Eulecanium pruinosum) is also prevalent, along with three other scale species which have been identified in minor numbers. These other species were found to be of little economic significance – but they include Brown soft scale (Coccus hesperidium), Nigra scale (Parasaissetia nigra) and Black scale (Saissetia oleae). Soft scale left uncontrolled can lead to heavy infestations which in turn can impact negatively on both yield and quality.

SYMPTOMS Soft scale insects are sapsuckers that

need large quantities of sap to satisfy their protein requirements. Since the sap is low in protein and high in sugar, the scale secrete the surplus sugar as a sticky sweet substance called ‘honeydew’. Fungi then grow on the ‘honeydew’ and the affected area takes on a black appearance. Upon closer examination ants are often found feeding on the honeydew. Soft scale can be found randomly located in vineyards (i.e. patchy) and infestations can vary significantly from one vine to the next. Severe infestations will delay or even reduce budburst in the spring.

APPEARANCE In spring mature adult grapevine scale are found in clusters on the undersides of canes, on and beneath the bark of older wood. They are approximately 7mm long, oval in shape, convex and are brown to reddish brown in colour.

Tiny, flat, yellow, crawlers are found in late spring and early summer on the undersides of leaves. During late summer and in autumn they change colour from pale yellow to light brown but they remain relatively small. Frosted scale appears very similar to the grapevine scale in the immature life stages. The frosted scale can be identified by their elongated, slightly humped and waxy appearance during spring.

LIFE CYCLE Soft scale has only one lifecycle a year. Immature scale survive on canes and older wood in winter and rapidly mature in spring. In October and November the soft scale adults lay numerous eggs beneath their body. The grapevine scales eggs are identified by their pinkish colour while the frosted scale eggs are pale yellow. When egg production has ceased, the adult scale dies and the area beneath the scale is filled with eggs. Dead scale have been observed attached to vines for periods of more than a year. The eggs hatch in early summer into small ‘crawlers’ that migrate onto the underside of sheltered vine foliage. By harvest time light brown juvenile scale (‘crawlers’) can be seen in large numbers on the underside of leaves in the vicinity of dead adults. In autumn the immature soft scale insects move from foliage onto canes and older wood where they ‘overwinter’.

MONITORING To determine the most suitable control option, growers should monitor their vines regularly. Monitoring after leaf fall and during dormancy is the easiest time to identify infestations, particularly if hand pruning staff members have been trained to identify the pest. Vines should also be monitored and tagged during the growing season, as this will give an early indication of problem areas. These outbreaks can then be reassessed in winter and controlled where necessary.

CONTROL OPTIONS 1. Quarantine Preventing soft scale from initially contaminating vineyards is the best

Mature scale reach about 7mm in length.

54 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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April 2017 – Issue 639

2. Biological Control There are a number of natural enemies that can control low levels of grapevine scale. Parasitic wasps (Metaphycus lounsburyi), (Metaphycus maculipennis), (Coccophagus lycimnia), predatory lacewings, ladybirds, and some moth larvae can potentially provide control. Small Metaphycus lounsburyi exit holes can sometimes be observed on parasitised scale. Small white predatory larvae can also be found feeding on the eggs beneath adult scale. Providing natural enemies with alternative sites to both feed and shelter can help maintain their numbers. This can be achieved by promoting a mixture of flowering flora on the vineyard floor. Control of ants may be required as they interfere with biological control. Ants feed on the honeydew released from the scale, and at the same time actively attack or repel natural predators and parasites. Relying on biological control requires routine monitoring to ensure scale numbers do not exceed critical levels. The unnecessary use of sprays that might damage beneficial insect numbers should be avoided. 3. Petroleum Oil Sprays Moderate levels of soft scale have traditionally been controlled with petroleum oil. There are two types, summer oil and winter oil which both kill all stages of scale by suffocation. Winter oil seems to be more effective, but summer oil can be used safely closer to budburst. Oils are thought to have less adverse impact than ‘broad spectrum’ insecticides on beneficial insect numbers. This method of control requires regular monitoring as it often only partly reduces the scale population. April 2017 – Issue 639

INNOVATION FOR GROWTH Scale eggs hatch from underneath the adult in early summer.

4. Insecticide Sprays Where soft scale infestations are severe, broad spectrum insecticides can be added to petroleum oil to enhance mortality. Some products containing the active ingredients chlorpyrifos, methidathion, and maldison are registered for control of soft scale. In recent years, growers have used a mixture of methidathion and petroleum oil sprays in severely infested vineyards. It is essential growers seek approval to use broad spectrum insecticides. Note: A trial performed by CCW revealed that an ‘oil only’ spray provided a mere 44% control of soft scale, whilst an ‘oil and insecticide’ spray was significantly better, achieving nearly 99% control.

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APPLICATION OF SPRAYS Sprays should be applied as soon as possible into dormancy and after pruning: • At early dormancy grapevine scale are small and easier to control; • Pruning reduces scale numbers and enables better spray coverage. Ensure good spray coverage: • Drench vines to penetrate beneath the dead bark where many scale are sheltering. Spot spraying can be cost effective: • Scale infestations are commonly patchy in vineyards. • Reduces the impact on natural enemies. Note: The Excessive use of insecticides can decimate beneficial insect populations and lead to outbreaks of other vineyard pests.

Disclaimer The intent of sharing elements from the original CCW factsheet has been to disseminate information, not render professional advice or services. If you have additional questions, please contact your local viticulture experts for advice. And if considering spray applications, make sure you are using agrochemicals registered for use in Australian viticulture. Visit www.awri.com.au for the latest version of this information. www.winetitles.com.au

Arrange a demonstration on 1800 269 773 or sales@fmrgroup.net.au if you’re serious about improving your harvest outcome. CONTACT FMR AUSTRALIA: 1800 269 773 FMRGROUP.NET.AU NEW ZEALAND: 0800 367 583 FMRGROUP.CO.NZ Winner 2014 ‘Sustainability Award’ WISA Supplier of the Year Awards

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FMR2017CR

control option. Implementing an effective property quarantine programme can be difficult, but it has the potential to accrue major savings over the long term. Special attention should be paid to the movement and disinfection of both machinery and personnel. Scale crawlers and immature scale can ‘hitchhike’ on vineyard workers clothing, harvest machinery, vineyard machinery and vine rootlings. The harvest period poses particular risks due to the small size and large number of the crawlers on leaves and contaminated harvest machinery moving from one property to the next. Crawlers can also spread naturally by crawling and wind dispersal but this is generally limited in magnitude.

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INNOVATION FOR GROWTH

CELEBRITY GARDENERS aren’t joking when they describe gazanias as hardy plants suited to a range of tough environments. Unfortunately, that’s not such good news when you’re trying to get rid of them. Gazanias have become such a problem to some grapegrowers in the Riverland that the Riverland Wine Viticulture Technical Group (RWVTG) organised a comprehensive two-year trial to work out how best to eradicate them. “They are virtually indestructible and don’t need any water so they are either a great plant or an awful weed,” said Chris Bennett, from Riverland Wine. “A couple of years of reasonable spring rains has allowed them to germinate and proliferate. After a year like we’ve just had, I hate to think what they’ll be like next year.” A few growers found gazanias encroaching on their vineyards and tried to control them with the normal chemicals registered for vineyard use, but it was as if they were selected to encourage gazanias. “They were killing off everything else and the gazanias were saying thank you very much,” said Bennett. The same happened with regular roadside spraying by councils. No matter how sick and sorry the gazanias looked initially, they invariably bounced back stronger than ever. Spraying large areas also requires an awful lot of spray, and thus constant refilling, and there is the added problem that the leaves of the plants are quite hairy, so the droplets often stay suspended above the leaf surface. When individual experimentation by growers failed to find an effective solution, the RWVTG decided to take a scientific approach, with funding from Wine Australia and support from the South Australian Government through April 2017 – Issue 639

Primary Industries and Regions SA (PIRSA). “First, we sat down and worked out all the possible combinations of available chemicals and the things that would improve efficacy, such as using wetters or slowing down the evaporation of droplets to give the chemicals more time to penetrate,” said Bennett. “We also looked at a combination of treatments – coming in hard with an initial dose then following up while the plant was still recovering. “An initial round of trials gave direction to see if the first thoughts stood up to test. After that round we realised some were just a waste of time so we concentrated on those that showed more promise. That gave us the best results and a series of recommendations.” The recommendations can be found in a factsheet available from the Wine Australia website and Bennett says it is relevant to growers in any regions where gazanias are a problem. “The interesting thing is that the recommended solution wasn’t the best the first time around so it was fortunate that we could run the trial over a couple of years,” he said. “You’ve got to get the right conditions.” Based on the trial results, it was concluded (as explained in the factsheet) that the best treatment is a combination of Glyphosate and Hammer®. Interestingly, this is most effective when the plants are healthy, and preferably actively growing. “Under dryland conditions, this means that there is a window of opportunity in winter and spring that must be taken advantage of,” the factsheet says. “In a dry year, this window can be very narrow. Plants under stress or with fully matured leaves will not absorb the Glyphosate as well and subsequently the treatment is likely to be less effective.” www.winetitles.com.au

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

FMR2017DR

Addressing a weed that keeps bouncing back

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grapegrowing

Where there’s smoke... There’s not necessarily smoke taint AT A GLANCE A total of 10 remotely-accessible smoke detectors have been set up in major vineyards – three in North Eastern Victoria (the King and Ovens Valleys), three in the Yarra Valley and others at the fire front. Data was captured on the distribution of particulate matter in smoke haze across a full season of controlled burns. Smoky air also was sampled to determine the chemical composition at varying distances from the fire front.

THE MOST CONCERTED EFFORT yet to understand how, when, where and why smoke affects wine grapes has kicked into gear this vintage. Victorian-based researchers have accompanied authorities to the site of controlled burns in and around wine regions to monitor the movement and make-up of the smoke to get a better idea of the patterns of impact. “The missing component in all the research that’s been done to date is the smoke composition work”’ said Dr Ian Porter, the co-project leader. “The damaging compounds aren’t in all smoke and they drop out at a certain distances from a fire, so which fires are and aren’t they in?” The project is one part of a twin-assault being funded Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program, the Victorian Government, the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI), La Trobe University and Wine Australia. While Dr Porter and colleagues at Agriculture Victoria and La Trobe are working on “the pre-emptive side of things”, researchers at the AWRI, led by Dr Mark Krstic, will run a concurrent program looking at how to limit uptake by fruit and ameliorate juice and wine when a smoke taint event does occur. Together the teams will look at mitigation treatments in the vineyard and wine. “The overlap is that we are working cooperatively on understanding the sensory wine threshold levels in different wines,” said Dr Porter, who splits his time between La Trobe and Agriculture Victoria. Minimising the impact of wildfires on wine grapes is important to wine regions across the globe. There is equal concern about the impact of controlled burns, which are mandatory in Victoria and therefore occur regularly. Many people fear that any fire brings smoke and that all smoke poses a problem, even low level haze, but studies to date suggest that this may not be the case. “The important factor – and we didn’t really understand just how important it is until about three years ago – is that particulate matter in smoke haze does not necessarily mean there are damaging compounds in it,” Dr Porter said. “Now we can take that knowledge further. I think we are going to take

58 Grapegrower & Winemaker

great strides in the next three years.’ While the project will be intense, logistically difficult and not without risk, some important lead-up work had already been completed ahead of this year’s vintage. First, the Victorian Government funded a $4 million project at the Centre for Expertise in Smoke Taint Research, which provided key scientific information about the free and bound compounds that cause smoke taint and how they get in to the berries. Then Dr Porter and his team were able to do preliminary field sampling at controlled burns last Autumn while working in collaboration with the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). A total of 10 remotely-accessible smoke detectors were set up in major vineyards – three in North Eastern Victoria (the King and Ovens Valleys), three in the Yarra Valley and others at the fire front – and data was captured on the distribution of particulate matter in smoke haze across a full season of controlled burns. Smoky air also was sampled to determine the chemical composition at varying distances from the fire front. The work allowed the research team to not only test their monitoring procedures, but also to get to grips with the complex issues around access and communications and learn the safety protocols. With the method in place, they can get down to the targeted data collection in the new project. “The key question now is how far do you need to be downwind of a fire to get the concentration of the compounds and for how long do you need to be exposed to get taint?” Dr Porter said. “You can get taint in 10 minutes if you are right next to a fire; however the compounds change very rapidly. So what does it mean if you’re 500 metres or 10 kilometres away or are subject to low level smoke for several weeks? “We are trying to find the critical thresholds for smoke and grapes. We are using this project to model how the smoke from controlled burns moves, and this will help to understand the impact from wildfires nationally and assist planning controlled burns by DELWP in the future.” This project is supported by funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its Rural R&D for Profit program.

www.winetitles.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

Vine improvement in the west THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN Vine Improvement Association has had another productive year. Orders for propagation material have increased, and the industry has advanced the introduction of new clones and varieties to their vineyards, especially with vineyard redevelopments and grafting. The association remains busy filling orders, managing the collection, setting up new source blocks, and supporting research bodies. The association relies on a small team of volunteers and assistance from the Department of Agriculture and Food, and has delivered the new web site (www. wavia.org.au) now hosts alternative variety information and the order form and submitted R&D funding applications. Orders in 2016 were higher and more than 10,000 cuttings were distributed. The majority were alternative varieties, including; Aligote, Arneis, Biancone, Barbera, Montepulciano, Carignan, Furmint, Harslevelu, Grüner Veltliner, Lagrein, Kardarka, Sciacarello, and Saperavi. There were also orders for Nebbiolo, Durif, Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, Riesling and Shiraz. The Manjimup Horticultural Research Institute (MHRI) Germplasm collection and MHRI Alternative Variety Trial block continue to play a vital role in the association’s ability to supply material to industry of these emerging varieties and clones. These resources provide interstate customers with clones and varieties they have been unable to source from anywhere in Victoria or South Australia. An important role of the association is to source new and improved varieties and clones and to set up source blocks to provide a supply of material for industry. We are pleased to report that several new source blocks have been set up including; Saparavi I11V10, Montepulciano FSAC and Vermentino H62-1LN. The Germplasm collection was boosted with the introduction of Flora, a hybrid of Gewürztraminer and Semillon developed in California by Olmo which produces a full bodied aromatic wine. The association is also working on importing Assyrtiko. The ‘Genomic basis of Clonal Variation in Cabernet Sauvignon Wine Grape’ project, managed by Dr Michael April 2017 – Issue 639

Considine of Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia (DAFWA) and University of Western Australia is progressing. The goals of the project are to determine the genomic basis of clonal identity of elite Cabernet Sauvignon clones via whole genome sequencing of 12 clones; from which markers will be designed to distinguish between them. A further goal is to explore whether molecular differences exist between clones in relation to biosynthesis of known wine flavour and aroma precursors. Genomic data from 10 clones has been analysed and the progress made points to significant variation within a vine. Work is now concentrating on sequencing several shoots of one vine only, and using this to look at DNA, RNA and epigenetic variation. This has clear implications for variation seen within a vineyard (or even panel). The association continues to support Di Fisher of DAFWA with progressing the CSIRO project to establish a database of DNA tested Germplasm collections nationally. The database will include information about: variety, clone, accession code, DNA confirmation, history, virus status etc. and will eventually be available for online access. The association submitted opposition to the proposed changes to Biosecurity Australia from a state-based system to a national system. The association believes a change to a national system would leave the viticultural industry in Western Australia more prone to importation of pests and disease. Richard Fennessy hosted a field day, with association committee members assisting, at the Harvey Ag College in the Wokalup Alternative Variety Trial block. The field day was aimed at allowing members of the WA wine industry to view the growth habits and bunch characteristics of the 22 varieties within the block. Growers were then able to discuss the varieties, their potential and the availability and access to propagation material from the association. The Western Australian Vine Improvement Association expects the use of improved clones and varieties in Western Australia will deliver improved quality, productivity and profitability for the industry. www.winetitles.com.au

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

FMR2017BR

Jim Campbell-Clause presented the chairman’s report to the Western Australian Vine Improvement Association earlier this year. This abridged version covers some of the highlights of the work being carried out.

grapegrowing

Emerging trend: Single-vineyard wines McWilliams Wines has released a new range of single-vineyard wines from Hilltops and Tumbarumba. Nathan Gogoll reports. THERE ARE SOME wines that quickly spring to mind when the topic of single-vineyard is raised. The likes of.... Henschke Hill of Grace, Brokenwood Graveyard, Pewsey Vale Contours, Jasper Hill’s Georgia’s Paddock, Mt Pleasant Lovedale, Grosset Polish Hill, etc. While the most recognisable single-vineyard labels are generally delivered by established brands and older vineyards, there are also emerging brands which claim their singlevineyard credentials. Take for example… Brash Higgins’ Omensetter Vineyard, McLaren Vale; Fikkers Single Vineyard Pinot Meunier, Yarra Valley; Bress Le Grand Coq, Macedon Ranges; Domaine Naturaliste, Margaret River etc. Across both the established brands/sites and those which are emerging, there is clearly value being placed on the ability to make a single-vineyard claim – whether on the label, in the marketing of the wine, or even a trained explanation from the team pouring the wine in the cellar door. In my experience there seems to be real value in sharing a message with a consumer that a wine has captured what one single site is capable of. Depending on the consumer (and whether it was a Hill of Grace or a Brash Higgins Nero d’Avola) this might either make the grapes-into-wine process a little bit easier to understand, or

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60 Grapegrower & Winemaker

it might convince the consumer to think of the wine (and it's price point) as more authentic. However as Tyson Stelzer, one of Australia’s most-respected wine writers pointed out, “there are certainly many wineries putting out single vineyard wines and they’re all the rage in the market”. “But it takes a very special site to produce a better wine than can be achieved through careful blending from a range of sites,” Stelzer said. One of Australia’s largest wine companies, McWilliams, has wines that fit in all the categories we’ve mentioned so far – both established and emerging single-vineyard wines (as well as the carefully blended combination from a range of sites). The McWilliam’s family enjoys a long history of winemaking in New South Wales, dating back to 1877 when brand founder Samuel McWilliam first planted vines on the banks of the Murray River. Skip forward 140 years to 2017, and the new singlevineyard releases demonstrate the McWilliam’s commitment to winemaking in NSW. The connection with NSW continues through Andrew Higgins, McWilliam’s senior winemaker – who was born and raised in the Griffith area and graduated with a Wine Science Degree from Charles Sturt University in 2002. Higgins has been part of the winemaking team at McWilliam’s since 2003 and has also completed vintages in California, the Northern Rhone and Bordeaux. The newest editions to the line-up have been made from a trio of premium, single vineyard wines and champion two of New South Wales’ emerging cool climate regions - Hilltops and Tumbarumba. The wines, released in March, sit within the brand’s ‘flagship range’ and retail for about $40 per bottle. The vineyards are located at high elevation, which helps deliver powerful flavour attributes according to the winery, and the ambition is for them to appeal to both connoisseurs and adventurous palates. As McWilliam’s Senior Winemaker, Andrew Higgins, explains, “as you increase the altitude, you also take on more risk during the growing phase”. “It takes longer for the fruit to ripen, and you are at the mercy of unexpected weather patterns, such as frost,” Higgins said. “Positively, the grapes have better flavour and aroma retention, and the resulting wine conveys a superior freshness and structure. “Generally cooler climate fruit provides an opportunity to make very elegant, medium bodied wines that pair excellently with food, which is what consumers are currently seeking.” The wines are 2014 vintage was crafted by Higgins and include: 2014 McWilliam’s Parkes Single Vineyard Chardonnay Fruit grown by Rob Parkes at his Glenburnie vineyard. The cool aspect and rich volcanic soils of the east facing Tumbarumba site produce a distinctly elegant yet intense style of Chardonnay, infused with pristine, green citrus and melon fruit flavour characteristics. This vintage was awarded 96 points from James Halliday and runner up in the 2016 Halliday Chardonnay Challenge.

www.winetitles.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

As you increase the altitude, you also take on more risk during the growing phase… It takes longer for the fruit to ripen, and you are at the mercy of unexpected weather patterns, such as frost. 2014 McWilliam’s Single Vineyard Hilltops Shiraz The Hillrose vineyard is managed by Roger Clarke, a third generation Hilltops farmer. The handpicked fruit results in an elegant and spicy medium bodied Shiraz with fleshy blueberry fruits, vanilla oak and some punchy tannins. 2014 McWilliam’s Single Vineyard Hilltops Cabernet Sauvignon From the best block on the McWilliam’s Barwang vineyard, managed by Chris Coddington – who believes the gentle inland slopes of the Hilltops region could be the best place in Australia to grow world-class Cabernet. The wine was awarded a score of 97 and judged to be the best Australian Cabernet Sauvignon at the recent 2016 James Halliday Cabernet Challenge show. On the Cabernet, Higgins noted, “2014 was a supremely perfect growing season. Below average winter rainfall and warm, dry weather resulted in open canopies, low yields and intensely flavoured fruit. The wine is a classic, vibrant cabernet – infused with silky blackberry fruits and fine graphite tannins.” When these new-release wines were announced, McWilliam’s noted the development of its premium range had been driven by changing tastes of Australian consumers. The company even pointed to research by Wine Intelligence which demonstrated Australians are generally drinking less wine, but are opting for more premium choices when they do. The Market in Focus: Australia report from Wine Intelligence pointed out: “The strongest growing price segment for Australian wine in the domestic market is $16– 24.99 per bottle, with double-digit growth. There was also solid growth in the $25 per bottle and above segment… “Data collected by Wine Australia on sales of Australian wine in the domestic market show that while the volume of wine sales was down by 0.6 per cent to 456 million litres in 2014– 15, the value of domestic sales increased by 3.8 per cent to A$2.78 billion.” Bob Campbell, one of New Zealand’s best-known wine writers, said his, “gut feel is that single vineyard wines are becoming more important, in the same was that sub-regions, or even regions, seem to have more relevance as wine drinkers fine tune their appreciation”. And Campbell had some thoughts on how a single-vineyard wine might resonate with consumers. “I do think that there is quite a lot of interest in authenticity – which is probably helping drive the orange/natural/organic wine thing – and that single-vineyard wines are somehow more ‘authentic’ than those of a blend of vineyards.” While he has a very knowledgeable position in the grape and wine community, Campbell’s own personal insight into the quality and character of single-vineyard wines seems worth reflecting on: “I like Penfolds Grange but have more respect for Henschke Hill of Grace because it has vineyard character – in spades,” Campbell said. April 2017 – Issue 639

Valuable lessons on disease control

The extreme weather conditions of the 2016/17 vintage will be one for the record books for sure! Across Australia, we’ve experienced unprecedented conditions from summer rain and heat waves in the east, to a cool summer interspersed by unseasonal deluges of rain in the west. I was reminded of just how extreme these conditions have been when I saw on the news a Swan Valley viticulturist paddling down the rows between his vines in a canoe. I felt disappointed for him, and many others in similar circumstances, to see all his good work ruined by elements beyond his control. Thankfully, these intensities have not impacted as heavily on all growers, although weather conditions have created high risk scenarios for the big three foliar and fruit diseases: downy mildew, powdery mildew and botrytis. As the season comes to an end, we are now well placed to assess what disease management strategies worked – and what didn’t – in these extreme conditions. The large volume of rain meant preventative programs based on contact sprays were really tested and, given the conditions, persistence of contact fungicides on plant surfaces was a key factor. Good surfactant technology maximises the ability of the active ingredient to stick to the waxy cuticle of the leaf, resisting wash-off effects of rain and other degenerative effects of wind, sunlight and humidity. It’s worth investing in well-researched superior contact products that have a history of proven performance. It’s preferable to use multi-site contact fungicides as the foundation of your disease management as these fungicides are considered a much lower risk to developing resistance and their use takes the pressure off the higher risk fungicides. Furthermore, this season has highlighted to me just how important it is to protect your crop during flowering and berry development. It’s a critical time in crop growth. Strategic use of more robust sprays will pay big dividends and in this respect I have received a great deal of positive feedback about REVUS®. REVUS as a superior protectant against downy mildew that not only binds quickly to the waxy cuticle of the leaf, but also moves through the leaf surface to be locked in, making it completely rainfast. The primary benefit is a rainfast preventative strategy against downy mildew that doesn’t get washed off and lasts longer than more traditional protectant products. The feedback I’ve received has been that growers using more robust systemic sprays during flowering and early berry development have had greater success against both downy and powdery mildew. Growers that locked in a spray at the two key timings of 80% capfall and EL29 for botrytis control have also seen the benefits with clean crops.

Vine Talk is compiled by Dave Antrobus, Syngenta Solutions Development Lead dave.antrobus@syngenta.com 0429 133 436

www.winetitles.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

young gun

Andy’s advice:

Work hard. Travel. Ask a lot of questions. The Yering Station chief viticulturist has broad experience across several winemaking regions, but he still credits the first vineyard he worked in as inspiring him today. When asked to talk about his biggest achievements, he cited his family and mentioned his two kids. Nathan Gogoll reports on a refreshingly grounded young gun. ANDY CLARKE HAS spent more than 20 years within the grape and wine community and in his role with Yering Station he manages more than 100 hectares of vineyard and a team of six people. He’s got a positive outlook on his role; the business he’s involved with; the region he works in; and the wine and grape community in Australia. “I feel that Yering Station is really going from strength to strength,” Clarke said. “Vineyard health is improving, and the redevelopments give us an opportunity to improve even further.” The focus on vineyard redevelopment is front of mind in the Yarra Valley – and for Clarke at Yering Station –

62 Grapegrower & Winemaker

thanks to the presence of Phylloxera. Yet his outlook on this threatening pest tells you a lot about his knowledge and competence as a young industry leader. “We are in the middle of a replanting program, transitioning from own roots to rootstock,” Clarke explains. “The high capital outlay means that a long term approach must be taken, with a focus on protecting your premium assets. “It is an exciting time for Yering Station and the region though, as it gives us an opportunity to optimise our site design, with the historical knowledge of how our land can perform. This next wave of vineyard plantings in the region will take wine quality in the Yarra Valley to a new level.” www.winetitles.com.au

Outside of his role with Yering Station, Clarke has been fairly busy with other industry involvements. “In 2016 I was appointed to the board of Vinehealth Australia which is exciting, as I believe my location and role can provide some insight into the management and impact of Phylloxera and other biosecurity issues,” he said. “I am also member of the Victorian Wine Ministerial Advisory Committee (WineMAC), the Victorian Viticultural Biosecurity Committee (VVBC) and the Yarra Valley Winegrowers Association Tech Sub-Committee.” Clarke was also the wine industry’s 2015 Nuffield Scholar. (Nuffield Scholarships are among the most prized April 2017 – Issue 639

and respected research, leadership and development opportunities in the Australian agriculture sector, providing a $30,000 bursary to embark on a 16-week program across a two-year period) “It takes the scholars out of their own industries and opens them up to amazing international networks and innovations from all other agricultural, value adding and trade circles,” Clarke said. All of this experience has shaped Clarke’s outlook on his work in the vineyard, which is: “Do what you can to improve the soil, and then minimal intervention in the field, let the vines find their balance,” he said. He’s grounded. In fact, Clarke rates his family as his biggest achievement in life, “then being recognised as a future leader of the industry with my Nuffield Scholarship”. And his biggest challenge? “Managing family and work when you have considerable amounts of time away from both,” Clarke said. “I have two young children, who keep me very busy, but I am also a keen cook and gardener. I am also working my way through a renovators delight.” He has also carefully considered the challenges facing the broader grape and wine community, and he is worried with the level of “navel gazing”. “Being a heavily brand driven industry, we can become very focused on our own piece of turf,” he said. “There are so many great ideas and innovations happening in other businesses, both within and outside our industry.

“We need to be better at cross communicating and asking why someone else is succeeding in all aspects of business.” Some of his willingness to look into the backyards of other industries comes from his own experience away from vineyards and wine. “I did leave the industry for about five years to pursue a career as a cheesemaker with the Yarra Valley Dairy,” Clarke said. “It was a great experience, and in some ways, particularly when trying to develop new products, it allowed you to experience a vintage every day as you made each new batch of cheese. The turnaround time from production to consumption was also far quicker. “During this time I was fortunate enough to spend a summer in the French Alps making mountain cheeses, Reblochon and Beaufort – incidentally with the same families Giant Steps winemaker Steve Flamsteed worked for years earlier. “The Bibbolet family… a hard-working family business that is truly inclusive and true to its product. Better people you would not meet. “This experience was unforgettable, with early mornings milking cows, fresh air, brilliant produce and spectacular scenery. Time outdoors was essentially what drew me back to agriculture and the wine industry.” Clarke grew up on a dairy farm near Tantanoola, a small town near Mount Gambier in South Australia (Limestone Coast wine region). When he was still at school he wanted to be a chef, but a push from his father and the pull of a

special Grenache vineyard helped steer him toward a viticulture career. “My father was a graduate of Roseworthy College in the 1960s and was a big influence in me applying for the winemaking, or ‘plonky’, course – as he described it,” Clarke said. “As I moved through the second year it became clear that, as a farm boy, I was more connected to the agricultural aspect of the course and I chose to pursue the viticulture channel.” Clarke said the combination of food, wine and farming “seemed to mix well”. He also believes a university placement at the Eringa Park Vineyard in McLaren Vale was very influential. Eringa Park is now Yangarra Estate, and the old vine Grenache on the property “just sucked me in”. “I have completed 15 vintages – across the Yarra Valley, Margaret River, McLaren Vale, Adelaide Hills as well as GLO roles which encompassed all of South Australia and Sunraysia,” Clarke said. With all his experience across those regions, Clarke still reflects on the old vine Grenache in McLaren Vale and mentions Peter Fraser and Michael Lane at Yangarra Estate, “the first vineyard I worked in”, as inspirations. “It is amazing what they are doing regarding quality and sustainability of a truly magnificent vineyard,” he said. Did we mention Clarke is grounded? When asked what else he hoped to achieve during his career, he replied, “I would be happy if I, and those working with and around me, continued to grow as people”.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

National win for SA grapegrowers SOUTH AUSTRALIAN vineyard owners have been recognised on a national stage for their commitment to wine industry biosecurity. Vinehealth Australia (formerly the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Board of SA) received a 2017 Australian Biosecurity Industry Award in Canberra, presented by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources in March. The award recognised significant contribution to maintaining Australia’s wine industry biosecurity integrity. “It’s a fantastic win for Vinehealth Australia, but really this is a win for South Australian vineyard owners,” said Inca Pearce, Vinehealth Australia CEO, who accepted the award in Canberra. “The award celebrates the commitment and vision of growers in South Australia to establish the Phylloxera Act under which we operate. And it demonstrates their continued commitment to supporting it 117 years later. “However, this award also serves as a timely reminder that we must not be complacent – we all need to play our part to prevent an incursion, especially in light of the increasingly complex biosecurity landscape.” Linda Bowes, chair of Barossa Grape & Wine Association, nominated Vinehealth Australia for the award. She said Vinehealth Australia has provided immeasurable value to the wine industry with an unbroken 117-year focus on vine biosecurity. “Vinehealth Australia has been a silent achiever and protector of viticulture in South Australia since 1899 and has played a most significant role in the enviable high health reputation of Australian viticulture,” Bowes said. “Of course, a key achievement of Vinehealth Australia is that South Australia continues to be free of phylloxera. Today, free trade economics allows greater import freedom and increasing numbers of travellers are visiting Australian regions. The risk of pest and disease incursion is heightened across all agricultural sectors. “Vinehealth Australia continues the vital role of specifically protecting the wine industry’s biosecurity interests though a range of important projects such as up-to-date vineyard register data and mapping, industry education, actionable vigilance and emergency response preparedness.” Roseanne Healy, Vinehealth Australia chair, said the organisation has a proud history in South Australia. “Vinehealth Australia’s stability through industry funding and leadership and its ‘ownership’ by vineyard owners mean that it will continue to provide an important focus on vine health, biosecurity and awareness of threats to the Australian wine industry, which contributes $40.2 billion in gross output to the Australian economy,” Healy said. “The award is also an acknowledgement of the positive difference made by South Australian growers who have funded

Vinehealth Australia continues the vital role of specifically protecting the wine industry’s biosecurity interests though a range of important projects.

Vinehealth Australia chair Roseanne Healy and CEO Inca Pearce at the national biosecurity awards in Canberra last night.

Vinehealth Australia over many years and those who have given their time and expertise to serve on its board.” Vinehealth Australia is committed to minimising the risk of pests and diseases (particularly phylloxera) in South Australian vineyards.

VITICULTURE VOLUME 1 – RESOURCES – 2ND EDITION A comprehensive reference book on Australian viticulture devoted to matters that concern pre-planting decisions. Topics include grapegrowing regions of Australia, soils, climate, grapevine varieties, vineyard site selection and berry development and grape quality. 64 Grapegrower & Winemaker

www.winetitles.com.au

AVAILABLE AT www.winetitlesbookstore.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

Vineyard: Trellising

Developments in vineyard mechanisation and precision management

Ted Rieger reports on a UC Davis seminar that informed growers about the equipment and research available to mechanise operations. RISING LABOUR COSTS, A shortage of farm workers and advances in equipment and data collection technology are among the main factors driving vineyard mechanization and precision viticulture management. As a result, vineyard managers and wine producers are more receptive to employing technologies to mechanize more field operations, as indicated by interest and attendance at a seminar and field day held last year at the University of California, Davis on ‘Current Developments in Vineyard Mechanisation and Precision Management’. UC Davis viticulture extension specialist Dr Kaan Kurtural, who moderated the meeting, has conducted vineyard mechanisation research trials for several years to evaluate cost-effective mechanisation practices for managing grape quality and yields. Referring to California legislation signed in early April that will raise California’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2022, Kurtural said, “Our program today is more timely than ever. We didn’t know the minimum wage would be going up to $15 when we first put this program together.” Kurtural is part of a research team funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) and supported by the National Grape & Wine Initiative to develop precision vineyard management tools and methods for collecting and evaluating data to manage spatial variability in vineyards.

April 2017 – Issue 639

Options like this rotary brush from CLEMENS carries out two jobs in one pass – clearing suckers gently and efficiently while also removing weeds at the base of the plant.

The project has been in progress for five years and received funding in late 2015 to continue for four years. Field trials with equipment available today show that several mechanised operations can be performed in a timely manner at lower costs per acre than manual labour, with similar or better results. Mechanisation and precision management technologies continue to improve and will offer more opportunities to better manage variability in vineyards.

VINEYARD MECHANISATION Kurtural said vineyard operations that can be done mechanically include:

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dormant pruning, suckering, shoot thinning, leaf removal, berry and cluster thinning and harvesting. A focus in recent years has been to improve technology for mechanised canopy management, such as dormant season pruning, shoot thinning and leaf removal during the growing season. Discussing canopy management, Kurtural explained that vine microclimate is affected by the amount of leaf area, the distribution of leaf area and their interaction with the aboveground climate. This is important in relation to grape berry composition and overall vine health. The canopy should

Grapegrower & Winemaker

grapegrowing

Several equipment manufacturers offer tools for pre-pruning and mechanical box pruning operations, including Australia’s Ledgard Pruning System from Task Automation.

be managed during the growing season to provide an optimum light environment in the fruit zone during fruit set and ripening. The goal is to optimise diffuse or indirect light within the canopy and minimize exposure of clusters to direct sunlight, especially in warm climates. When properly managed, this provides uniformly ripe fruit, sound fruit and fruit with desired flavour and composition that reaches peak maturity at the optimum time for harvest. Kurtural also emphasized, “But good yield is still a paramount goal because growers have to turn a profit to stay in business.” New and replanted vineyards are more commonly designed now with trellises for high-cordon, machine-pruned vine systems managed by mechanical boxhedging, or box-pruning, on each side of the vine to maintain about an 8-inch hedge before the start of the growing season. Kurtural is overseeing the design and replanting of a new vineyard block at the UC Oakville Experimental Station in Napa Valley that is being set up for highcordon, machine-pruned box hedging and mechanization as a demonstration site for the wine industry. Kurtural cited economic comparisons for manual versus mechanised dormant pruning methods and summarised, “We can achieve economies of scale with mechanical practices, the equipment is

66 Grapegrower & Winemaker

available to do most vineyard cultural practices, and precision and accuracy continue to improve.”

PRECISION VITICULTURE Kurtural said precision viticulture is a site-specific management tool that combines new information technologies and production experience to map variability of production and quality in order to optimise yield efficiency, improve berry composition and minimize environmental impacts. With a look toward the future, Kurtural discussed sensor and data collection technologies for soils, canopies, berries and crop loads being tested and developed for vineyard applications under the SCRI research project. Data collected and integrated at test vineyard sites will be used to map vineyard zones for variable rate management. Berry and wine composition will be analysed at UC Davis lab facilities for chemical and quality parameters. One member of the research team, Dr Stephen Nuske with Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, is leading a project to develop and test sensors and an imaging system for detection, data collection and analysis of vineyard berry counts, berry diameters and berry colour, with data incorporated into an automated mapping system. The imaging technology uses two www.winetitles.com.au

high-resolution cameras with flash units mounted on an ATV driven through the vineyard (either day or night) to collect up to 10,000 images per minute. The system can detect green berries early in the season and is designed for use during the growing season as a tool for crop estimation. The technology would also be used later in the season to measure berry colour closer to harvest as a quality measure for mapping quality variability in the V-MECH tool carrier trailer with shoot thinner and cordon brush vineyard for potential differential harvesting with a mechanical harvester. The berry size data during the season is also being layered in a mapping system for correlation with canopy size data collected by Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) imagery. Kurtural noted that yield monitors are already available – developed in Australia by Advanced Technology Viticulture – and are typically placed on mechanical harvesters to record grape harvest weights in relation to location using GPS and to map actual vineyard harvest yields. The SCRI study is collecting data on actual yields with yield monitors to compare with the in-season crop estimates to validate the accuracy of the crop estimation technology under development. Kurtural advised growers April 2017 – Issue 639

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Monitoring vineyard stress with infrared radiometers can take the guess work out of irrigation.

to use yield monitors available now to provide another data point for their vineyard management decisions. The SCRI researchers have started a website at www.efficientvineyard.com. It will be updated with information on projects and technologies during the multi-year research project.

MECHANIZED CANOPY MANAGEMENT TOOLS Several equipment manufacturers offer tools for pre-pruning and mechanical box pruning operations. Tools from two manufacturers were shown at the seminar in the UC Davis teaching and research vineyard. V-MECH vineyard mechanization equipment is manufactured by Midwest Grower Supply Mfg., based in Stanberry, MO, which acquired the V-MECH vineyard product portfolio from Oxbo International Corporation in 2014. The V-MECH 2200 tool carrier is a prototype platform used by UC Davis this

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68 Grapegrower & Winemaker

year for mechanized research trials in Lodi and Sonoma County. The two-row tool carrier on a towbehind trailer is attached to and powered by a vineyard tractor. The trailer can be customized for different row widths and conditions. The tool carrier has two separate booms to attach tools for overthe-row operation on two vine rows at one time. The trailer has two seats for two operators, and each operator has a separate joystick control and touchscreen display terminal to operate a tool head for one vine row. Chris Peterson, Midwest Grower Supply V-MECH product manager, demonstrated a shoot thinner for vertical shoot position (VSP) trellises that is commonly used when shoots are 15 to 30cm long. The shoot thinner uses rotating plastic blades in front that remove longer lateral shoots on each side of the vine row. This device can be followed by a rotary cordon brush (with multiple, curved flexible plastic rods as bristles) to remove shoots and

leaves closer to the vine cordon. It can operate at speeds of 3.5 to 5km/hr. The unit can also be adjusted and used for trunk sucker removal. The operator can adjust the speeds of the shoot thinner and cordon brush separately, and the height and angle of the heads are adjustable. Using on-board controls, the operator can adjust for variable vine growth and conditions while moving down the vine row. As part of the SCRI project, researchers are working to further automate the V-MECH equipment to incorporate vision sensors and enable programming of the control system for variable rate shoot thinning based on vineyard location. The goal is to eventually automate the two tool heads to allow operation of the entire unit with just the tractor driver. Also displayed was a sprawl pruner with flexible configurations and adjustment based on trellis height. It can be used under a T-top trellis with up to 24-inch cross arms, or on a two-wire sprawl or a high-wire cordon system for box pruning. Midwest Grower Supply also carries rotary pruners for VSP trellises with rotary precision spur cutters and mulcher discs. These are available with optional vertical sickle bars to cut longer spurs ahead of the rotary cutters and automatic opening kits to move around trellis posts. V-MECH sales manager Joanne Reynolds said V-MECH equipment is currently used by several commercial winegrape growers. In California, Mesa Vineyard Management is using four V-MECH trailer units in the Central Coast on more than 600 acres. The equipment is generally more practical for growers with more than 100 acres, but Reynolds said groups of smaller growers have pooled funds to buy a unit and share it among multiple vineyards. Clemens Vineyard Equipment Inc., founded in Germany in 1952, supplies equipment and tractor attached tools for vineyards worldwide. US manager Thomas Clemens, based at the U.S. office in Woodland, CA, showed a pre-pruner for box pruning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;More people are using these units

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April 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 639

with high-wire trellises for box-pruning in California, and many acres are being planted and designed to use this type of pruning system,” Clemens said. These tools were used for high-cordon box pruning in Lodi vineyards in 2014 and 2015, and the company is developing newer versions specifically for high-wire systems. Several manufacturers offer leaf removal equipment to open the fruiting zone in the vine canopy for better air and light exposure and to reduce fungal and mildew pressure. Available technologies include suck-and-cut type implements and air-blast fan implements, both used mostly for VSP trellis systems. A rollover type implement that uses suction and cutting can be adapted for VSP and sprawl trellis systems. A Clemens leaf remover was displayed at UC Davis that uses a roller and a perforated drum with a suction fan behind them to draw leaves into the drum and eject them through the other side and onto the vineyard floor. When used at the end of the grape bloom season, dried flower parts are also blown from the grape berries to help prevent fungal growth in the grape clusters. The leafer has a sickle bar in front of the drum/fan unit to pre-cut lateral shoots to enable the leafer to do a better job.

MEASURING VINE STRESS WITH IRTS FOR IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT Andrew McElrone of the USDA Agricultural Research Service and the UC Davis Department of Viticulture & Enology discussed current research on

the use of infrared radiometers (IRTs) to measure vine water stress for use in conjunction with surface renewal stations in the vineyard for irrigation management. McElrone led the research team that studied and developed surface renewal technology for vineyard irrigation, now commercially available from Tule Technologies and used by a number of vineyards to monitor and evaluate evapotranspiration (ET) for making irrigation decisions. IRT technology has been available since the 1980s. The IRT sensor devices being tested are manufactured by Apogee Instruments, based in Logan, UT, and cost about $600 per sensor with a data logger. IRTs can be used to measure plant leaf and canopy temperatures. Plant temperature is an indicator of stress because leaf temperature rises as leaf stomata close. The Apogee IRT can be placed above the vine canopy, attached to a pole or to the Tule Technologies surface renewal station, and aimed down upon a leaf or a larger leaf canopy area. The Apogee sensor allows flexibility in placement because it can sense leaf surface temperature without being in contact with the leaf. Surface renewal measurement has demonstrated to be a good indicator of water use and the amount of water needed in a vineyard block, but more information is needed about plant water stress to better determine the timing of irrigation. Christopher Parry, a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher, is conducting field research with IRTs and provided information during the field

demonstration at the UC Davis vineyard. In addition to stationary sensors in the vineyard, he is testing a mobile, handheld IRT sensor to take readings from multiple locations. IRTs can provide realtime measurements continuously during the growing season, and the data loggers can track and record temperature data at optional interval periods, ranging from 30 seconds to 10 hours. Parry is experimenting with IRT sensors mounted at different heights above the canopy to determine if a single sensor can be placed at a given height to enable readings across multiple vine rows. Presently, he recommends having at least two sensors for each vineyard station to collect temperatures on both sides of the vine row canopy to account for sun and shade exposure differences on each side of the row. Parry is monitoring IRT field sensors placed in commercial vineyards in California and collecting and analyzing data for determining IRT calibration and data correlation for winegrapes. IRT technology is promising because of its potential to automate daily field data collection as an easier and less expensive alternative to the time and labour required for data collection for leaf water potential with pressure chambers. “We’re hoping surface renewal and IRT technology will complement each other so we have a better system to know how much to water, as well as when to water,” Parry said. This article was first published by US Wine Business Monthly and has be used with permission.

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NZ Tube Mills product development engineers have worked closely with the Australasian wine industry to develop ECO TRELLIS® steel posts and wire clips. New product development includes: • Intensive testing of steel posts in vineyards that are exposed to high www.winetitles.com.au

wind and extreme weather conditions; • The launch of a patented colour coded clip range to make the viticulturists and vineyard workers more efficient in the field; and • Typically vineyards pre-select their preferred post hole positions, however where a standard stocked fully punched replacement post has been provided via the rural distributor, an ECO TRELLIS® plug is available that has been designed specifically to fill any un-used pre-punched holes. (They are easily removed if you want to change the position of irrigation or cordon wires and do not protrude or interfere with mechanical pruning or harvesting equipment.)

IDEAL FOR REPLACEMENT OF BROKEN WOODEN POSTS With millions of intermediary vineyard posts damaged in Australia each year, ECO TRELLIS® is also ideal for replacement of broken wooden posts. Viticulturists and vineyard managers using ECO TRELLIS® intermediary posts report that they replace significantly less than timber alternatives each year. ECO TRELLIS ® is also popular with organic winegrowers requiring sustainable viticulture methods and mainstream vineyards looking to future proof their investment. For more information, visit www.ecotrellis.com April 2017 – Issue 639

w w w.vinehealth.com.au

Pierce’s Disease. Photo courtesy of Jack Kelly Clark, http://calag.ucanr.edu/ Archive/?article=ca.v068n01p20

Glassy-winged sharpshooter adult. Photo courtesy of Johnny N. Dell, Bugwood.org.

Spotted-winged drosophila male. Photo courtesy of G. Arakelian - Center for Invasive Species Research, University of California.

Know your pest: A guide to grapevine threats AUSTRALIA’S GEOGRAPHICAL ISOLATION and commitment to biosecurity has protected our grape and wine industry from many of the devastating pests and diseases that affect viticulture throughout the world. The climates of our grape producing regions are, however, conducive to the survival, spread and establishment of these pests and diseases, should they be introduced. Consequences include threat to the livelihood of vineyard owners and the sustainability of wine regions and the entire industry. “Keeping Australian vineyards free from phylloxera and other devastating pests and diseases has never been more challenging,” said Inca Pearce, Vinehealth Australia CEO. “We live in an age where interrelated biosecurity ‘megatrends’ are influencing risk and management, including the increased movement of people, goods and vessels around Australia and the world. And, unfortunately, pests and diseases do not respect national and state borders. There is no room for complacency.” Australian grapegrowers annually battle endemic diseases such as powdery mildew, downy mildew, eutypa and botrytis. But what are the major notifiable pest and disease threats not yet on our shores, as well as notifiable endemics, that all Australian vineyard owners should be aware of? What signs should you be looking out for? And what should you do if you suspect a new pest?

HIGH PRIORITY EXOTIC PEST AND DISEASE THREATS Pierce’s disease (Xylella fastidiosa) • Named Australia’s number one unwanted plant pest in 2016; • Caused by a bacterium that lives in the water conducting vessels (xylem) of grapevines; • Grapevines show symptoms of water stress, such as leaf scorch and the plant progressively weakens and dies within a couple of years; • Can be transmitted in infected propagation material and by leafhoppers such as the exotic Glassywinged sharpshooter; • The bacterium affects more than 350 commercial and ornamental plant species; • Currently found in Europe, Asia, Middle East, North America, Central America and South America. Glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis) • A xylem-feeding leafhopper that causes direct damage to grapevines through its feeding activities, but feeding causes no visible signs of damage; • Main vector of the exotic Pierce’s disease (Xylella fastidiosa); • Adults are 12-14 mm long with dark brown to black colouring and a lighter underside. The upper parts of the head and back are mottled with ivory or yellowish spots. Wings are partly transparent with reddish veins; • Exudes copious amounts of watery excrement, often appearing as large

white spots on leaves, stems and grapes when dry; • A strong flyer that can move rapidly between plants, as well as through plant and propagation material during their egg and nymph phases; • Present throughout eastern and western America, Mexico, Tahiti, Hawaii and the Cook Islands. Spotted-winged drosophil (Drosophila suzukii) • A temperate to subtropical species of vinegar fly native to Southeast Asia that attacks a range of soft-skinned fruit species; • Adults are 2-3mm long with a wing span of around 6-8mm, golden brown with dark contiguous bands on the abdomen and prominent red eyes. Males have small dark spots on the wing tips, a feature not shared by the common vinegar fly; • Larvae are cream or white and about 3mm long; • Egg deposition and larval feeding can occur in maturing, firm fruit; • Infested fruit shows small scars and indented soft spots on the surface, left by the ‘stinging’ (ovipositing) females. These scars also expose the fruit to secondary attack by pathogens and other insects, meaning detection of fruit rot might be the first warning sign of infection; • Larval feeding results in the fruit collapsing around the feeding site; • Spreads through crops by flight or longer distances with plant material; • Present through North America, Asia and some parts of Europe.

Grape phylloxera adults, nymphs and eggs. Photo courtesy of Agriculture Victoria (Rutherglen).

Black rot necrotic lesions on a grapevine leaf. Photo courtesy of Matthew Zidek, Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, Bugwood.org.

Grapevine leaf rust. Photo courtesy of YuanMin Shen, Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, Bugwood.org.

Grapevine red blotch-associated virus. Photo courtesy of M. R. Sudarshana, USDA-ARS.

Angular leaf scorch. Photo courtesy of Rick Dunst, Double A Vineyards, US.

Bacterial blight on grapevine shoot. Photo courtesy of C.G. Panagopoulos, Agricultural University, Bugwood.org.

Grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) (exotic strains) • Adult phylloxera are 1mm long and yellow in colour in summer, tending to brown in winter. They feed exclusively on leaves and/or grapevine roots causing death of the European grapevine, Vitis vinifera; • Root feeding on V. vinifera results in distinctive hook-shaped galls (nodosities) on fleshy roots or tuberosities on older roots; • The first signs of a phylloxera infestation include slow and stunted shoot growth and early yellowing of leaves as they lose function. Leaf yellowing will normally be seen in two to three neighbouring vines, usually, but not always within the same vine row; • Symptoms may appear within three years, with vine death within 5-6 years depending on the phylloxera strain; • Several hundred strains of the pest are documented worldwide; • Exists throughout many of the world’s viticultural regions.

greyish-tan to reddish-brown centres that are most apparent on the upper leaf surface. Pycnidia (spore bearing structures) develop in the centre of these necrotic spots and appear as small, blackish pimples; • On shoots, stalks and tendrils, lesions are purple to black, sunken, and typically oval or elongated. Pycnidia are commonly observed throughout these lesions with numerous cankers resulting in damage to shoot growing tips. As the canes grow, the bark tends to split along the length of the lesion; • Infected fruit shows brown spots that have a dark ring with a sunken centre which expands to involve the entire fruit. Individual fruit then rots and eventually shrivels into a black, wrinkled mummy. These mummies are also covered with pycnidia; • Can result in complete crop losses in warm and humid growing regions; • Spread easily over long distances through water and wind-borne spores, as well as through propagation material and fruit; • Present in North America, Asia, Africa, Europe and South America.

Black rot (Guignardia bidwellii) • A fungus that affects all green tissues of the grapevine, including the fruit; • Leaf infection is typified by minute, round, reddish-brown spots which grow to a maximum diameter of 3-7mm. As the spots enlarge, they develop black interveinal margins and

Grapevine leaf rust (Phakopsora euvitis) • The only known rust on grapevines; • A fungus that predominantly occurs in warm temperate and subtropical growing regions; • Mainly affects leaves, but can also affect fruit, stems and bunch stalks;

• Causes small, dark, angular necrotic lesions on the upper surface of grapevine leaves. On the lower leaf surface, the lesions are covered by orange to yellow sporulating pustules; • Infection causes weakening of the grapevine, resulting in early senescence and leaf drop, and a reduction in fruit quality and quantity; • Can spread easily over long distances through wind-borne spores, as well as on clothing, equipment and through the movement of infested plant material – particularly grapevine leaves; • Present throughout Asia, North America, Central and South America. Grapevine red blotch-associated virus (Geminivirus) • A recently identified and described virus, first detected in California (USA) in 2008; • Causes red blotch symptoms on leaves, as well as a significant reduction of up to 5° Brix (2.8 Baume) in grape sugar accumulation; • Symptoms generally start appearing in autumn as irregular blotches on leaf blades and the basal portions of shoots. Primary and secondary veins on leaves turn red (unlike green veins of vines infected with Leafroll virus), and red blotches appear between the interveinal margins; • Leaves do not roll in at the margins as for Leafroll virus; • Spread through grafting and

TIPS FOR VINEYARD MONITORING

propagation material; • Present in North America.

•

Angular leaf scorch and Rotbrenner (Pseudopezicula spp.) Both diseases are caused by two separate species of the fungus Pseudopezicula and have very similar symptoms; predominantly found on the leaves; Causes lesions on leaves which lead to premature senescence. Leaf lesions first appear as faint, yellowing spots (on white varieties) or bright red spots (on red varieties) which enlarge, changing to reddish-brown before the tissue eventually dies. The lesions are typically confined by the major veins and the edge of the leaf, and may be several centimetres wide; Can affect inflorescences at or preflowering, causing individual flowers to rot and then dry out, resulting in severe crop loss; Heavy rainfall and prolonged wetting periods favour pathogen spread and infection; Spread through water and air-borne spores and overwinters in dead leaves on the ground; Angular leaf scorch is present in North America. Rotbrenner is present in cool grape growing regions of Europe (particularly France and Germany).

Bacterial blight of grapevine (Xylophilus ampelinus) • Caused by a bacterium that lives in the water conducting vessels (xylem) of grapevines; • Can affect leaves, petioles, stems, roots, shoots or flowers. Symptoms include linear red-brown streaks that expand upwards on the shoot, darken, crack and develop into cankers. Cankers can also appear on the sides of petioles leading to one-sided (marginal) leaf necrosis and may also appear on bunch stalks. Shoots subsequently wilt, droop and dry up and young shoots may develop pale yellow-green spots on the lowest internodes. Necrotic leaf spots sometimes occur. Flowers which have not reached maturity turn black and die, roots may also be attacked resulting in retardation of shoot growth;

Monitoring a vineyard for unusual symptoms can be done both passively and actively: • Keep an eye out for pests and diseases when conducting any activities in your vineyard – being elevated in a tractor or harvester can give you the best view to spot anything unusual from a landscape perspective; • Conduct active pest and disease monitoring on foot weekly through the growing season where possible. Zig-zag up and down between sets of vine rows spread across your block, importantly returning to known ‘hotspot’ areas in your vineyard for endemic pests and diseases. Set yourself a standard number of observations for a block or per hectare basis so you can monitor changes in levels of pests or diseases you find over time; • Know what parts of the vine are likely to be impacted by the pest or disease you are monitoring for so you can target these; • Know what times of the season you may see the different pests or disease so you can time your monitoring accordingly; • Take images of what you are looking for with you into the field so you can quickly determine if you have found something new. Use your phone to capture pictures of what you see so you can show others and verify your findings; • Record the date, row numbers and results of your inspections. Flag anything unusual so you can return to the same spot to monitor progression of the pest or disease, effectiveness of the control method and level of damage at which intervention is required. • Infection results in a reduction of vine health and major crop loss in susceptible varieties; • Associated with warm moist conditions, and spread is favoured by overhead sprinkler irrigation; • Can be spread on pruning tools, propagation material and in wet and windy conditions. Local spread in vineyards tends to occur along the rows from the initial infection point. Natural dispersal is limited to the vineyard and the immediate surrounding area; • Present in South Africa, Spain, Argentina, France, Greece, Crete, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Slovenia. Vine mealybug (Planococcus ficus) and Grape mealybug (Pseudococcus maritimus) • Both mealybug insects are about 3mm in length, soft bodied, covered in a white powdery wax and are slow moving;

Grape mealybug nymphs. Photo courtesy of United States National Collection of Scale Insects Photographs, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Bugwood.org.

• The vine mealybug is oblong in shape and has short filaments around the body, with no tail filament. The grape mealybug has long tail filaments; • The mealybugs feed on sap from all parts of the grapevine, secreting honeydew. This clear, sugary excretion damages the fruit and foliage, resulting in unmarketable grapes, often due to secondary sooty mould infections;

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European grapevine moth adult. Photo courtesy of Todd M. Gilligan and Marc E. Epstein, TortAI: Tortricids of Agricultural Importance, USDA APHIS ITP, Bugwood.org.

Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni)

• Infestations can cause reduced vigour and yield and the transmission of viruses, and are typified by white waxy clusters of mealybugs in grapevine crevices, often associated with intense ant activity feeding; • Spread mainly occurs through propagation material or via movement of fruit; • Vine mealybug is present in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of North and South America; • Grape mealybug is present in Europe, Asia, New Zealand and North and South America.

Plan (IBP) where pest ratings considered the entry, establishment and spread probabilities for each pest in Australia, the likely impacts of the pest on cost of production, productivity, removal of quarantine barriers and market access, and how difficult the organism would be to control and/or eradicate. For a complete list of exotic pest threats for the viticulture industry, refer to the Viticulture IBP (http://www.wfa. org.au/assets/environment-biosecurity/ Biosecurity-Plan.pdf ) or contact Vinehealth Australia on (08) 8273 0550 or admin@vinehealth.com.au.

Grape berry moths (Lobesia botrana and Polychrosis viteana) • Grape berry moths feed on flowers and fruit and can cause significant yield losses; • Both species cause nearly identical symptoms. However, it is the larvae, rather than the adults, that are responsible for the majority of the damage to grapevines; • The European grapevine moth (L. botrana) adult is about 5mm long and has a light brown body, with grey to brown irregular patches on the wings. The American berry moth (P. viteana) is about 6mm long and has a brown body, with grey-purple bands across the wings and cream with brown spots near the wing tips; • Larvae web together berries on a bunch, then tunnel and hollow berries out, leaving only the skin and seeds. Damage is compounded by secondary infection of rot pathogens, such as Grey mould (Botrytis cinerea); • Adults can fly rapidly between host plants and larvae can spread through infested fruit and grapevine material; • P. viteana is present throughout North America. L. botrana is present throughout Europe, North America, the Middle East and some parts of Asia, Africa and South America.

HIGH PRIORITY NOTIFIABLE* ENDEMIC PESTS

These key pest and diseases were identified through the development of the Viticulture Industry Biosecurity

Grape phylloxera • Grape phylloxera (Daktulosphaira vitifoliae) is one of the world’s most damaging grapevine pests and is present in parts of Victoria and New South Wales (see Phylloxera Management Zones in Australia: h t t p: // w w w.v i n e h e a l t h . c o m . a u / biosecu r it y-i n-pract ice/maps/ phylloxera-management-zones/); • Australia is known to currently have 83 endemic strains; • Refer to symptoms under exotic Grape phylloxera; • Spread is through the movement of vineyard machinery, equipment, vehicles, soil, footwear, clothing, grapes, grape products, and grapevine material. Fruit flies • The Queensland fruit fly (Qfly) (Bactrocera tryoni) and Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) (Ceratitis capitata) are significant threats to viticulture production and can make it more difficult to access vital export markets; • Qfly adults are about 7mm long, reddish-brown in colour, with distinct yellow markings. Medfly adults are approximately 3-5mm long, with a light brown body and mottled wings; • Qfly are most active from September through to May but can also be active

in warmer periods during the winter months. Medfly are most active from October through to May; • Qfly is widespread throughout Queensland and has a limited distribution throughout south-eastern Australia. Medfly is restricted to parts of Western Australia; • Further information can be found at www.preventfruitfly.com.au or http:// www.vinehealth.com.au/pests-anddiseases/fruit-fly/

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO IF YOU SUSPECT YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE PESTS? Any unusual plant pest should be reported immediately to the relevant state/territory agriculture agency through the national Exotic Plant Pest Hotline (1800 084 881). Early reporting enhances the chance of effective containment and eradication. Your call will be forwarded to an experienced person who will ask questions about what you have seen and may arrange to collect a sample. Every report will be taken seriously, verified and treated confidentially. State and territory quarantine legislation specifies legal obligations for landowners and consultants to notify relevant state government departments within a defined timeframe, of particular viticulture pests. For example, grape phylloxera is a notifiable pest in every state and territory. Suspect material should generally not be moved or collected without seeking advice from the relevant state/territory department, as incorrect handling of samples could spread the pest or render the samples unsuitable for diagnostic purposes. State/territory agriculture department officers will usually be responsible for sampling and identification of pests. Source: The material contained in this article has been reproduced with permission from Plant Health Australia from the Biosecurity Manual for the Viticulture Industry Version 1.0 (http://www.farmbiosecurity. com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/BiosecurityManual-for-Viticulture-Industry.pdf). This manual was produced by Plant Health Australia with support from Wine Australia, Australian Vignerons, Australian Table Grape Association and Dried Fruits Australia. * Queensland fruit fly and Mediterranean fruit fly are not both notifiable in each state, depending on state freedom status.

Vinehealth Australia is a statutory authority operating under the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Act (1995) with legislative powers in South Australia. As part of its role, Vinehealth works to increase the wine industry’s knowledge of biosecurity threats and their management.

Product Update

Bahco compact electric secateurs BAHCO’S LIGHTWEIGHT electric secateurs BCL21 are ideal for use in viticulture. The new lightweight, batterypowered secateurs from Bahco have been designed for professional use in vineyards, orchards and nurseries, as well as parks and gardens, have been introduced by global brand Bahco. The compact blade of Bahco’s BCL21 secateurs, manufactured in France, enables clean cuts of up to 35mm, ideal for fast pruning in confined spaces. Up to a full day’s work, which might typically require up to 10,000 cuts, can be completed before the battery needs recharging. Weighing just 680g, these highly manoeuvrable secateurs reduce the risk of strain to elbows and shoulders. Their comfortable grip is suitable for both left and right handed users. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, the secateurs have three cutting settings, including a ‘fast progressive with half opening’ mode, saving time when cutting small branches. Due to the optical trigger a quick change of blade movement up to full opening is still possible. A Xylan® coating on the Bahco Pradines blade enables deeper, easier cutting. Blade change and adjustment takes a few seconds, with no tools required. The brushless, high performance motor has an integral cooling system and is designed for intensive professional use. The unit comes in a robust plastic

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grapegrowing

More knowledge helps battle grapevine trunk disease DR MARK SOSNOWSKI has been studying Eutypa for 14 years and says there’s still a lot more to be done. Fortunately, he enjoys the work and believes that “we’re hitting some home runs now”. “Very little was known about it up until 15 years ago and it takes a long time to get results because the disease progresses very slowly,” Sosnowski said. “It can take eight-to-10 years from infection for obvious symptoms to show up in the vineyard. “We started working just on Eutypa dieback but that has expanded to include Botryosphaeria dieback because we’ve come to realise that it’s just as big a problem in this country and that they work pretty much together and in the same way.” Both were the focus of a recently completed three-year project, funded by Wine Australia, that Dr Sosnowski carried out with colleagues at the South Australian Research and Development Institute, in collaboration with the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre and the University of Adelaide. It included six different but complementary components. The clearest and most surprising result was that, contrary to common belief, water stress caused by drought or regulated irrigation does not exacerbate disease – quite the opposite. “We really stressed the vines, but

then when we inoculated them with Eutypa or Botryosphaeria the rate at which pathogens colonised the wood and caused dieback did not increase; with Eutypa it actually slowed significantly,” Dr Sosnowski said. “That wasn’t what we expected but when you think about it, it makes sense, because our variety susceptibility research has shown that the physical size of the canes affects how quickly the fungus can move through it. The takehome message is that it may not be stress that’s causing the problem; we just need to be more vigilant about managing the disease.” Getting a clearer idea of how to do that was central to the recent project, as it is to further research already under way. The principles of control strategies are pretty straight forward – protecting pruning wounds and removing the infection that’s already there – but there is a real focus on fine-tuning management strategies, particularly around wound protection to “make sure that we’re applying wound protection at the right time and only when it’s necessary”. The first issue is when to act. The recent project confirmed that rainfall is the primary factor that triggers the release of spores, but there are other environmental factors at play that require further study, and release patterns vary between regions and across the year. “Spore release mainly happens during

winter but it can happen at any time of year so we need a clearer picture of the pattern in different regions,” Sosnowski said. The second issue is the nature and timing of the response. Trials in McLaren Vale and Wagga Wagga suggest there is little advantage in choosing one pruning time over another, but that wounds are most susceptible to disease pathogens in the two weeks immediately following pruning – whenever it takes place. On the upside, fungicides provided wound protection for up to three weeks, meaning that a single application should be sufficient if applied at the right time. “The aim is to get better at predicting spore release so growers will know whether spores were active on a given day and can make informed decisions about how long they’ve got before spray needs to be applied,” Sosnowski said. “If we can bring all three aspects together growers will have a lot more confidence in predicting when to protect vine wounds and when they don’t need to.” Another component of the project looked at whether remedial surgery, which has been shown to control Eutypa dieback, can also be effective with Botryosphaeria. That’s still very much a work in progress, but the researchers did note difficulties with renewing shoots from the scion when working with grafted vines.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

winemaking

Gentle or intense grape crushing? Crushing releases juice from grapes and increases the speed of skin extraction. Classically, this process was performed by foot treading but the process started to be mechanised in the early 19th century. Quite vigorous crushing equipment has sometime been used, but relatively gentle overlapping lobe roller crushers are now widely used (when crushing is performed at all). Recently there has been some renewed interest in different and more intense crushing equipment because of the potential for enhanced colour extraction or reduced skin contact time in red wine production. Simon Nordestgaard, from The Australian Wine Research Institute, reports on the evolution of grape crushing equipment and some of the new crushers being proposed that operate on different principles as well as research questions that remain. THE CURRENT STANDARD Crushing between pairs of rubberised overlapping lobe rollers spinning at the same speed is the current industry standard method (Figure 1). The roller gap is adjustable and one roller in each pair is spring-loaded to try and prevent any hard objects in the harvest from damaging the device. A safety switch is also sometimes fitted for this reason. The crusher is most commonly integrated underneath a destemmer but independent crushing units are also available to allow for sorting between destemming and crushing. Crushers underneath destemmers are usually mounted on rails or hinges so that they can be moved out of service if a winemaker wishes to destem without explicitly crushing. Destemmers themselves will of course result in some crushing effect, as will must pumps. For information on recent developments in gentler destemmers, see Nordestgaard (2015).

ROLLER CRUSHER EVOLUTION Roller crushers were introduced in the early 19th century. Key challenges were trying to crush grapes without crushing

the seeds and stems and getting the material to efficiently feed between the rollers and not just slip/bridge across the top of them. Some designs used rollers spinning at different speeds to aid feeding and enhance crushing via a stripping effect (Figure 2a). Other designs featured rollers spinning at the same speed with overlapping lobes to enhance grip and feeding, not dissimilar to modern designs (Figure 2b). By the early 20th century, differential speed roller crushers with a speed ratio between 3:1 and 5:1 had become the most common design. Rollers then also typically featured helical grooves on at least one roller and an easily adjustable roller gap. One roller in each pair was also sometimes spring-loaded to allow hard objects in the harvest to pass (Figure 3). To enhance feeding and maximise capacity per roller length, some manufacturers also introduced conical rollers (Figure 4). Simple single roller crushers that crush grapes against a plate were also sometimes used (Figure 5a). In the late 19th century a design was introduced with blades that moved in and out of the roller to feed and crush the grapes against the plate (Figure 5b). The degree of crushing could be controlled by adjusting the

Figure 3. Spring-loaded roller crusher, image c. 1905

Figure 4. Conical roller crusher, images c. 1930

Figure 1. Standard rotary destemmer with a close-up of the associated overlapping lobe roller crusher (lower throughput crushers have one instead of two pairs of rollers)

Figure 2. Early 19th century roller crushers: (a) Guerin differential speed roller crusher, image c. 1819, (b) Lomeni same speed overlapping lobe roller crusher (hopper/cover removed), image c. 1825 April 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 639

Figure 5. Single roller-plate crushers: (a) Acher/Thiebaut de Berneaud crusher with nails in the roller, image c. 1829, (b) Simon FrĂ¨rescrusher, with reciprocating blades in roller, image c. 1895

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Figure 6. Celestin Coq roller crusher-destemmer, image c. 1950s

Figure 8. Paul centrifugal crusher, image c. 1905

Figure 7. Modern hobby-scale differential speed roller crusher

Figure 9. Bagshaw horizontal centrifugal beater crusher-destemmer

position of the plate. The plate was also spring-loaded to allow hard objects to pass. In the mid-20th century, overlapping lobe roller crushers overtook differential speed roller crushers as the most common crusher design. Their good feeding capability and therefore high throughput was probably a major factor, as was their gentleness on stems. Notably, destemming was not as common as it is now, and when performed it was more likely to occur after rather than before crushing (e.g. Figure 6) so the gentleness of crushers on stems was very important. Crusher rollers at the time also often did not have rubber surfaces that could limit damage to stems and seeds (despite rubber being used on some roller crushers as early as the 1850s). While no longer common in commercial scale winemaking, differential speed roller crushers are still common in hobbyscale winemaking (Figure 7). The speed differential is 1.3:1 in the model shown and there are paddles above the rollers to assist feeding.

CENTRIFUGAL CRUSHERS The increasing use of engines/motors instead of hand-power in the late 19th century likely both emphasised the throughput limitations of some roller crusher designs and facilitated the development of alternative high throughput crusher designs. In France, the engineer P. Paul developed a vertical centrifugal crusher (Figure 8) in which bunches of grapes fell onto a grooved fast rotating tray and were consequently thrown against the tank wall and crushed. The material was then funnelled to another rotating tray

78 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Figure 10. Garolla horizontal centrifugal beater crusher-destemmer, image c. 1940s

where it underwent a second crushing. A diagram in one textbook implies that a version of the Paul device may have also existed without the second crushing stage. In the early 20th century the Paul crusher was used in many wineries in the south of France and Algeria. (Algeria may no longer be an important wine producer, but in the first half of the 20th century French Algeria was the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fourth largest wine producer and largest wine exporter.) Horizontal centrifugal beater devices that both crush and destem were introduced in the mid to late 19th century by companies like Bagshaw in Australia and Garolla in Italy. The Bagshaw crusher-destemmer has a beater that crushes and destems as it rotates in a single fixed screen (Figure 9). The crushed grapes fall through the screen while the stems are conveyed along and out the end of the screen. It is not dissimilar to rotary destemmers used today, except that the beater was designed to explicitly crush the grapes as well as to destem them. In centrifugal beater devices, depending on beater design and speed, crushing is caused by some combination of wedging of grapes between the beater and screens, and direct impact on the grapes as they are hit by the beater and projected into the screen. The Garolla crusher-destemmer (Figure 10) features two concentric cylindrical screens that rotate slowly. The fastrotating beater has elements in the inner screen to destem the grapes and elements between the screens to vigorously crush the destemmed grapes. The inner cylindrical screen only extends for part of the length of the outer screen and the detached stems are exposed

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April 2017 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 639

to a final beating in the outer screen to recover adhering juice before they exit. In the USA, it appears that the term ‘Garolla’ came to be used as a generic term to describe all horizontal centrifugal crusherdestemmers, even when they were made by other companies and featured only one instead of two screens (e.g. Figure 11). Vertical centrifugal beater crusher-destemmers were developed in the 1930s in France and Algeria (Figure 12). Grape bunches are fed from the top and are destemmed and crushed by the central rotating beater as they fall. The crushed grapes leave the bottom of the screen. The stems are conveyed upwards with adhering juice being removed by the outer beaters in the process. Several variations on this design were later developed. For example, some models featured sections in the outer screen that could be opened so stems would fall through with the crushed grape and therefore crushing could be performed without destemming when desired. In another variation, grapes were fed via a port closer to the bottom and crushing and destemming were all performed in the annulus between an inner drum and the outer screen (Figure 13). Feeding from near the bottom rather than from the top was advantageous because the crusher-destemmer could be directly fed from the grape reception hopper on the same level without the crusher-destemmer needing to be in a pit or the harvest having to be elevated. Centrifugal crushers and crusher-destemmers of the types above were widely used in large-scale wine production primarily because of their relatively high throughput. Their use declined in the latter part of the 20th century. They provided extensive crushing, resulting in high yields and high colour extraction. However, the extensive crushing gave more lees and sometimes excessive tannin levels. The vigorous aeration in some devices also cooled the must and fostered fermentation, but could have degraded some flavour compounds or precursors. In the literature, these devices were generally not advocated for anything but low quality mass wine production. Pacottet (1915) reported that the Paul centrifugal crusher did not damage the seeds or stems but that it gave substantive lees requiring many rackings and that the device had caused serious disappointment when trialled for quality wine production.

Figure 11. Valley horizontal centrifugal beater crusher-destemmer, image c. 1970s

Figure 12. Blachère vertical centrifugal beater crusherdestemmer, image c. 1940s

Figure 13. Vertical centrifugal beater crusher-destemmer with feed on the bottom left, image c. 1970s

Peynaud (1984) advised that centrifugal beater crusherdestemmers should be rejected for quality winemaking and Ribéreau-Gayon et al. (2006) stated that they produced fine suspended solids, imparting vegetal and herbaceous tastes to the wine. Centrifugal beater crusher-destemmers also resulted in more small fragments of residual stems in the must than standard destemmers (Marteau 1954).

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Figure 15. Pin-mill disintegrator/crusher used for secondary crushing, image c. 1970s

Figure 14. US-designed disintegrators, images c. 1960s

Figure 17. Diemme Open Grape differential speed roller crusher (stickers obscure roller surfaces - Diemme is applying for a patent on the roller design)

Figure 16. Pellenc Extractiv’ centrifugal crusher

DISINTEGRATORS AND SECONDARY CRUSHING In the 1960s and 1970s, some US manufacturers developed disintegrators as alternatives to roller and centrifugal crushers (Figure 14). Amerine et al. (1967, 1970) report that disintegrators were sometimes used to improve the balance in wine from red grapes with low tannin levels. Malan et al. (1978) trialled the use of a pin-mill disintegrator/ crusher as a secondary crushing stage after standard destemming and crushing. The pin-mill consisted of a static and rotating disc with concentric circles of slanted pins (similar to Figure 15). Material was pumped into the space between the discs (via the pipe on the left) and the treated material exited below. The pin-mill successfully stripped the pulp from the skins and seeds without damaging the seeds. The envelope effect sometimes seen with overlapping lobe roller crushers where the seed is trapped within the flattened skin was eliminated and there was an enhanced fragmentation of the skins. The pin-mill resulted in increased free suspended solids that impaired the efficiency of draining of white juice, although final yields were higher after mechanical draining and pressing. Tannin and colour were higher in bottled red wines that had been drained/pressed early and it was concluded that the enhanced extraction speed could be a means of turning fermenters over more quickly. However, with longer skin contact times (e.g. draining/ pressing at 3°Baumé) colour intensity was sometimes lower than the control treatment that had only been crushed in the conventional manner. Additional small solids generated by the extra crushing could perhaps have had a fining effect on colour that became more prominent as the rate of release of fresh anthocyanins from skins decreased later in the fermentation.

80 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The use of disintegrators as an alternative to existing crushers or as a secondary crushing stage is not mentioned in a later US textbook from the same series cited previously (Amerine et al. 1980) so it appears that interest in these devices dissipated.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS: IN-LINE STICK BLENDER, PELLENC EXTRACTIV’ AND DIEMME OPEN GRAPE Sparrow (2016) has recently looked again at the use of a secondary crushing device to fragment skins after standard destemming and crushing. In her trials an in-line stick blender type device was used for the secondary crushing operation. Like Malan (1978) the device did not damage seeds. Wines produced with the technique and early draining/ pressing received similar quality scores to control wines that had been produced without secondary crushing with draining/ pressing at the normal time. Around 2012, Pellenc released the Extractiv’ grape crusher as an alternative to roller crushers. In the Extractiv’ (Figure 16) grapes fall onto a rotating disc and are thrown against the tank wall and are crushed by this action. The crushing method is like that in the old Paul centrifugal crusher (Figure 8) but with only one instead of two centrifugal crushing stages. The speed and therefore degree of crushing is also probably much more easily manipulated than in the Paul device. The nominal capacity of the Extractiv’ is 25 tonnes/hour. In 2016, Diemme released the Open Grape differential speed roller crusher (Figure 17). Unlike older differential speed devices, the speed differential can be easily adjusted via independent motors and a controller and the company advocates the use of quite low speed differentials. Diemme gives examples with speed ratios of 1.3:1 and 2:1 in its marketing material. The company advises that it is looking for just enough difference in speed to fold the grape skin back

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April 2017 – Issue 639

and expose the inner side of the skin for extraction. The Open Grape uses rubberised rollers with an undisclosed surface pattern to grip the grapes. Diemme offers sizes from a two-roller model with a nominal capacity of 13 tonnes/hour up to a fourroller model with a nominal capacity of 45 tonnes/hour. Excessive lees and tannic astringency could result if the above designs were to be operated in the extreme manner of their historical analogues. But, if they are operated in a milder manner (i.e. lower rotating disc speed/roller speed differential than historically) results may be favourable. The actual performance for specific devices would need to be determined through independent experiment. The different modes of crushing with these devices likely offers a greater ability to modulate the degree of crushing than is possible with current overlapping lobe roller crushers.

OTHER RAPID EXTRACTION TECHNIQUES IN RED WINE PRODUCTION The new devices above are mainly being marketed for their ability to speed up or enhance the extraction of (stable) colour from red grape skins and therefore allow for faster turnover of red fermenters or more colourful wines. Other tools to achieve more rapid extraction are also available. The most well-established rapid extraction tool is prefermentation heat treatment (see Nordestgaard 2017). Heat treatment results in a rapid extraction of skin colour/ anthocyanins and a slower extraction of skin tannins, in contrast to intense crushing where tannin increases proportionally more than colour (Peynaud 1984). Heat treatment may therefore be a safer technique for avoiding excessive astringency; however, intense crushing does

avoid heating and therefore concerns about possible degradation of some grape flavour components. Research is also being conducted around the world on other extractive techniques. One example is pulsed electric field (PEF) treatment which involves the application of short high-strength electric pulses to degrade skin cell membranes. However, PEF treatment does not appear to be used commercially for this application at this stage.

TANNINS – JUST MORE OR ARE THEY DIFFERENT? More intense crushing should generally increase the rate of extraction of tannins from skins. An interesting question is whether tannins extracted in this way are different from those extracted slowly after more mild crushing. Only a small fraction of the tannins in grape skins ultimately ends up in wine so there is some possibility that different wine tannin composition may result from different types and intensities of crushing. The sensory properties of tannins may vary depending on their location within skin cells (e.g. cell vacuole or cell wall) and from different skin cells (e.g. closer to the inside or outside of the skin). More intense crushing could potentially enhance the release of tannins from particular locations. It may also modulate which of the released tannins are removed from solution through effects like the binding of tannins to pulp solids. Ribéreau-Gayon et al. (2006) seem to be of the opinion that different tannins do result from different crushing methods stating: - “For example, brutal crushing promotes the extraction of bitter and herbaceous substances. Percolation of must, on the

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winemaking contrary, favours supple and full-bodied tannins.” and - “Energetic crushing increases the diffusion of solid tissue components, but, according to a general rule, the corresponding tissue destruction promotes the extraction of inferior-quality tannins. These tannins impart vegetal and herbaceous tastes to the must and resulting wine. Unfortunately, no measures are currently available to confirm this fact.” The lack of objective data on the effects of mechanical actions on grapes under winery conditions is an impediment to the optimised design of crushing equipment and more generally to the optimisation of solid-liquid contact during red wine fermentation. Devices like the Pellenc Extractiv’ and the Diemme Open Grape may provide a good opportunity to study this topic because of their ability to readily manipulate the degree of crushing. Studies might also be aided by performing prior destemming and sorting using one of the new generation of gentle winery destemming and sorting systems to remove effects of incidental grape crushing and residual vegetal matter. Historically, the effects of explicit crushing may have sometimes been convoluted with berry breakage during destemming and/ or pumping and stem breakage/inclusion during destemming, crushing and pumping.

CONCLUSIONS This article summarises the history of mechanised grape crushing. The general trend has been towards relatively gentle overlapping lobe roller crushers (when crushing is performed at all). Devices that crush more intensively have been used for periods but then later discarded for reasons including low throughput, stem damage, excessive lees, drainer/press screen blockages, tannic astringency, and aeration. Gentle crushing with overlapping lobe roller crushers is the status quo and therefore probably the most conservative approach when crushing mechanically. However, if crushing processes are to be optimised for both quality and productivity, it may be worth experimenting with equipment that works by different principles and pushing the limits a little. In doing this it is important to keep in mind why similar designs have been rejected historically, and ensure that the new designs do not suffer from the same quality or productivity issues.

Amerine, M.A., Berg, H.W., Cruess, W.V. 1967. The technology of wine making. 2nd edition. Westport, Connecticut: AVI Publishing: 799 p. Amerine, M.A., Joslyn, M.A. 1970. Table wines. The technology of their production. 2nd edition. Berkeley: University of California Press: 997 p. Amerine, M.A., Berg, H.W., Kunkee, R.E., Ough, C.S., Singleton, V.L., Webb, A.D. 1980. The technology of wine making. 4th edition. Westport, Connecticut: AVI Publishing: 794 p. Arnaud, C., Niero, R., Samson, A., Caille, S., Ducasse, M-H., Bes, M., Salmon, J-M. 2013. Assessing a new crusher aimed at delivering wines with improved polyphenolic and flavours. Wine Vitic. J.l 28(3): 25-32. Bertuzzi, A. 1949. Enologia industriale – le machine enologiche. Milan: Hoepli: 327 p. De Villeneuve, L. 1819. Essai d’un manuel d’agriculture. Toulouse: J.M. Douladoure: 399 p. Fabre, J.H. 1946. Procédés modernes de vinification. Tome I du traité encylopédique des vins. 5th edition. Algiers: La Typo-Litho et J. Carbonel Réunies: 352 p. Fontaine, L. 1905. Les fouloirs a raisin. Le Petit Journal Agricole (510): 645-646. Garoglio, P.G. 1981. Nuova enologia. Brescia: AEB: 629 p. Guyot, J. 1865. Culture of the vine and wine making. Translated by L. Marie. Melbourne: Walker May and Co: 108 p. Jacquet, P. 1977. Les équipements de reception de la vendange à cave. RibéreauGayon, J., Peynaud, E., Ribéreau-Gayon, P., Sudraud, P. (eds.) Traité d’œnologie – Sciences et techniques du vin. Tome 4. Paris: Dunod: 439 – 476. Jacquet, P. 1977. Les matériels d’extraction des moûts et des vins. RibéreauGayon, J., Peynaud, E., Ribéreau-Gayon, P., Sudraud, P. (eds.) Traité d’œnologie – Sciences et techniques du vin. Tome 4. Paris: Dunod: 477 – 480. Lomeni, I. 1825. Macchina per la pigiatura delle uve o pigiatore. Milan: Giovanni Silvestri: 70 p. Malan, J.D., Vos, P.J.A., Gray, R.S. 1978. Pin-mill and roller crushers compared. Am. J. Enol. Vitic. 29(2): 125-136. Margaill, J. 1962. Le materiel de vinification. Vignes et Vins (112): 9-11. Marteau, M. 1954. Étude des égrappoirs. Vignes et Vins (35): 23-29. Maumené, E. 1890. Traité théorique et pratique du travail des vins. Paris: E. Bernard and Cie: 380 p. Meloni, G., Swinnen, J. 2014. The rise and fall of the world’s largest wine exporter— and its institutional legacy. JWE 9(1):3-33. Müller, K. 1930. Weinbau-Lexicon. Berlin: Parey: 1015 p. Nordestgaard, S. 2015. Developments in destemming and sorting technology, Part one: In the winery. Aust. N.Z. Grapegrower Winemaker (617): 96-102. Nordestgaard, S. 2017. Pre-fermentation heating of red grapes: a useful tool to manage compressed vintages? Aust. N.Z. Grapegrower Winemaker (637): 54-61. Ottavi, O., Strucchi, A., Tamaro, D. 1929. Enologia. Milan: Hoepli: 437 p.

Acknowledgements The author thanks the following equipment providers for kindly supplying information: Pera-Pellenc (pellenc.com.au, perapellenc.com), Diemme (diemme-enologia.com), BucherVaslin (www.buchervaslin.com), Della Toffola (dtpacific. com), Ridgelea (ridgelea.com.au), Winequip (winequip.com. au), IMMA (www.imma.it). Keren Bindon is also thanked for discussions about tannins and Ella Robinson is thanked for editorial assistance. The AWRI’s communications are supported by Australia’s grapegrowers and winemakers through their investment body Wine Australia, with matching funds from the Australian Government. The AWRI is a member of the Wine Innovation Cluster in Adelaide.

Disclaimer Readers should undertake their own specific investigations before purchasing equipment or making major process changes. This article should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any of the products described. The dates provided are best estimates based on comments in the available literature – there is always the possibility that some objects are older than specified.

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References and further reading

Pacottet, P. 1915. Vinification. Paris: Baillière: 471 p. Peynaud, E. 1984. Knowing and making wine. Translated by Spencer, A. New York: John Wiley and Sons: 391 p. Rankine, B.C. 2004. Making good wine. Sydney: Pan Macmillan: 318 p. Ribéreau-Gayon, J., Peynaud, E., 1960. Traité d’œnologie, Tome 1. Paris: Librairie Polytechnique Ch. Béranger: 753 p. Ribéreau-Gayon, P., Dubourdieu, D., Donèche, B., Lonvaud, A. 2006. Handbook of Enology, Volume 1. Translated by C. Rychlewski. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons: 497 p. Roos, L. 1900. Wine-making in hot climates. Translation by R. Dubois, W.P. Wilkinson. Melbourne: R. S. Brain: 273 p. Sparrow, A. 2016. ACE winery trials. AGWA final report. http://research. wineaustralia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Final-Report-VIN-1501.pdf. Thiébaut de Berneaud, A. 1829. The vine-dresser’s theoretical and practical manual. From the 2nd French edition, by the translator of Le Solitaire, Le Notti Romane & c. New York: P. Canfield: 158 p. Troost, G. 1961. Die technologie des weines. 3rd edition. Stuttgart: Ulmer: 702 p. Ventre, J. 1929. Traité de vinification I. 2nd edition. Montpellier: Coulet: 490 p.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

Potential contract winemaking pitfalls THE PREVIOUS WINE-EXPORT DRIVEN growth cycle, culminating in the Global Financial Crisis in 2007, saw the emergence of a substantial contract winemaking sector as part of the services infrastructure which sprung up to support the then expanding Australian wine industry.

USERS OF CONTRACT WINEMAKING Contract winemakers service not just small growers and wine companies where the economies of scale associated with small production do not justify building or equipping separate wineries, but also large wine companies, whose production facilities are fully utilised or

Wine Lawyer Mark Hamilton

Grope Hamilton Lawyers

distant from the relevant wine region, or because of timing issues during vintage. The industry was, during the previous expansion phase, struggling to keep up with the significant capital and logistics required to expand winery facilities at the same rate as sales. Although wine companies have become increasingly expert at protecting the quality of grapes being transported from vineyard to winery, there may be quality or logistical imperatives which

dictate that it is preferable to crush the grapes to must or process the grapes to wine nearer the vineyard. This may, for example, be contracting out making of medium or lower price point export wine. Some large companies withdrew from buying grapes from irrigated areas some years ago, only to emerge as purchasers of bulk wine under contract from contract winemakers. Entering into these contracts for large wine companies is one way of creating something analogous to a type of ‘off balance sheet’ financing arrangement by taking on the contingent liability associated with performance of the contract – thereby giving the grower and the contract winemaker a contractual

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winemaking basis for financing their business. To contract out or not is a cost/benefit assessment to be made by the individual winery – as against the alternative of the winery borrowing money (or raising more share capital) and having the logistical problems and risks associated with winery expansion to contend with. Factor in the depreciating nature of winery assets, and the demand upon wineries for funding stockholdings, and the contracting out of a part or aspects of the winery’s winemaking process may make a lot of business sense.

CONTROL OVER WINEMAKING PROCESS By far the major pitfall with contract winemaking is a lack of direct control over the winemaking process – with the attendant potential effect on wine quality. Assuming (of course) that the wine company selects a reputable, professional, well organised and capitalised contract winemaker, then by far the most important thing to do is to set up and maintain a constant dialogue and reporting system in relation to the winemaking process. The best practices approach is to regard the contract winemaker and winery as part of the organisation, to set written product specifications, written winemaking techniques and to actively supervise and be involved in the winemaking process – in the same way that the wine company would if it were making the wine itself, utilising its own facilities. This involves setting up written reporting procedures and maintaining (for example) weekly or fortnightly visits and meetings with the contract winemaker.

INVOLVEMENT IN WINEMAKING PROCESS Some contract winemakers provide services far away from the clients’ vineyards. The clients may, in those circumstances, rarely make the journey to the winery for tastings and have little idea how their wines are treated. It is vital to make this effort. With or without a written winemaking contract, a classic mistake is to simply arrange for the grapes to be delivered to the winery – and to leave the contract winemaker to it. Professional contract winemakers who wish to build a long term relationship with wine companies will in fact want to involve the wine company or grape grower in the winemaking process so that they can identify their desired wine style and deliver the required results. Whilst it is true to a large extent

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that ‘wine is made in the vineyard’ – particularly with ripe, premium fruit – it is also unquestionably true that there is much ‘winemaker’s magic’ (of the legal kind) which winemakers can wave over wine during the winemaking process to improve the result.

FUTURE OUTLOOK Given the plethora of small wineries producing up to 250 tonnes, contract winemaking is here to stay. The owners of large contract winemaking facilities have gone through the boom and bust cycle over the past decade or so. Many facilities are now owned by different parties. Although opinions will differ, a wine company must produce 500-plus tonnes before even a modest winery investment would begin to make anything like sense, on purely financial grounds. Even then, there would be limited scope for having much sophisticated equipment. I would suggest that realistically, this would need to be 2000 plus tonnes, and even then it may be driven more by personal sentiment, or ‘brand story’, than pure economics.

WRITTEN CONTRACTS A new generation of written contracts for contract winemaking have emerged in recent years – the advantages of negotiating a written contract are as always that it enforces upon the parties the discipline of considering ‘up front’ the process and issues which may arise during the intended business relationship. From the contract winemaker’s perspective, it also helps with forward planning, and therefore financing, if a reasonable percentage of the winery’s intake is secured by forward contract. This is vital to a contract winemaker’s survival.

NO BRAND IMAGE OR STORY WITH CONTRACT WINERY You know this but, for the record, when dealing with a contract winemaker, do not expect any ‘history’ or old stone buildings. You will be lucky if there are some immature trees planted along the dirt road in. Expect concrete and a farm of stainless steel tanks on an excavated, flat site – without anything else in sight except that which is strictly required to crush grapes and to produce and store wine. This is an accountant’s ideal winery. Expect the winemaking plant to be outside – with a small heater in the laboratory, which may be a Nissen hut, to keep the winemakers from catching pneumonia. www.winetitles.com.au

If you use a contract winemaker, then you’d better take your overseas distributors and journalists to your vineyard. Contract winemaking businesses are essentially financing operations which depend upon total efficiency and volume through-put, for their existence. They have no goodwill, and are purely a barometer of supply and demand in the industry. Some very good operators have failed financially during the past 15 years. It is a tough business indeed, when you consider that many such operators also participate in the bulk wine market.

CONTRACT STORAGE FARMS Hand in hand with contract winemaking, there is an increasing trend of contract storage farms. Watch for this to expand over time, both for reasons associated with wineries seeking to preserve working capital for stock, but also because many wineries will wish to preserve the historical look and feel of their wineries and vineyards – and feel that is would be counter-productive to their branding strategy and image to gradually convert the whole of their properties to tank farms. This is becoming a significant issue for many wineries who rely upon their history and brand story.

LEGAL ADVICE ADVISABLE When entering into a written contract with a contract winemaker, get some legal advice to ensure that your interests are protected – and try to ascertain the financial standing of the contract winemaker and those associated with it. Make sure that your wine is made and kept separate from other customers. If you do not have a winemaker on staff, and you are making a reasonable quantity of wine, consider employing an independent consultant winemaker to assist you in your dealings with the contract winemaker. Ensure that you get a registered Personal Monies Security Interest in relation to the wine made from your grapes to avoid potential arguments with liquidators or receivers. Also ensure that your interests are insured and also that the contract winemaker has indemnity insurance in place to meet your claim if your wine is spoilt due to contract winemakers’ neglect or default.

About the author: Mark Hamilton of Grope Hamilton Lawyers provides specialist national legal services to the Australian wine industry. He can be contacted by phone (08) 8231 00898 or email mhamilton@ gropehamiltonlawyers.com.au. April 2017 – Issue 639

Product Update

Barrel cleaning solution SPRAY NOZZLE ENGINEERING is a specialist in jet cleaning products and engineering solutions, based on its key technologies of water/chemical conservation and fluid handling. Every tank washing device is custom selected for optimal cleaning and provides a solution for every tank, tote and vessel, regardless of shape, size or internal obstructions. Their products use patented technology to save companies millions of litres of water and chemicals, thousands of hours, and facilitate massive increases in plant productivity and worker safety.

PRODUCT OVERVIEW: BARREL BLASTER The Barrel Blaster combines high performance impingement with dramatically increased durability that provides a service life three times longer than the best existing cleaning machine. The fluid-driven Barrel Blaster requires no external power supply and features high same impingement cleaning technology and performance.It also combines heavy-duty stainless steel construction with a larger gear train (which remains outside the barrel during cleaning) to provide exceptional durability. With a single insertion you can achieve 100% cleaning effectiveness quick and easily. The Barrel Blaster is easily attached to a bi-pod mount for traditional bung hole down cleaning. A ball valve attached to the mount allows for convenient water control directly to the bi-pod. It can be used with all existing storage/rack systems, to provide exceptional barrel cleaning convenience. Users can reliably clean barrels without ever lifting a barrel. Spray Nozzle Engineering can also assist in larger storage tank cleaning solutions. Barrel Blaster benefits: • Stop spoilage; • Avoid contamination; • Reduce water use; • Reduce chemical use; • Decrease cleaning time

April 2017 – Issue 639

TESTIMONIAL: TOP-NOTCH BARREL CLEANING Bill Heritage, the owner of Heritage Vineyards of Richwood (Gloucester County, New Jersey): “We are an owner of the Gamajet All-in-one Flex and are very happy with its performance,” Heritage said. “We are more confident today than ever that our barrels will be ready for the next batch of wine and there is no doubt our wines will be better from this point on.” Before the wine producer started using the Gamajet solution, Heritage had been using a low-pressure hot water spin nozzle to clean barrels. It was a method that was “not doing the job”. After reviewing a number of cleaning Heritage chose the Allin-one Flex head based on a number of factors: “The methodical cleaning pattern. This was easy to see when we cleaned our plastic totes. We observed just how well the All-in-one Flex covered all areas of the vessel. The amount of debris/water colour we observed when the vacuum system pulled the water from the barrel. We weren’t getting all of the titrates removed with the old system. The short amount of time it takes to clean and empty each barrel, about four-to-five minutes total.”

OVERVIEW Supply: Gamajet maintains a large stock offering with more than 20,000 different spray nozzles and associated products. Engineering: Gamajet continues to introduce new technology and custom designs, with the support of spray nozzle test laboratories for pattern analysis and spray droplet size testing. Manufacturing: Gamajet stands alone among the competition as the only local specialist manufacturer of unique patented spray nozzles and related products, exported around the world. Service and support: Gamajet provides hands-on problem solving; engineering and application consultation to provide truly engineered solutions for your applications. Visit tankcleaner.com.au for more information.

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winemaking

Problem wines we’ve recently seen… Greg Howell, from Vintessential Laboratories, reports on some of the issues his laboratories have seen – and the solutions that were available. AS A WINE CONSULTING laboratory business, now with labs in five states of Australia, we deal with many wineries and many thousands of wines every year. Most of these wines are of good quality; however a very small minority have some issues that need our help. Our job is to investigate what has gone wrong in the wine, and to suggest potential ways to fix the problem. In this article I have outlined a few cases which have come through our doors recently and hopefully this analysis will help other winemakers avoid similar issues. It is worth pointing out that in one case there was nothing wrong with the wine, but with how the sample was taken.

WINE FULL OF WILD YEASTS AND MOULDS Some recent tank samples tested for microbial growth turned out to grow a veritable zoo in the lab.

found mould growing in the sample point outlet. It was obvious that the sample was not representative of what was in the tank. Sampling is a critical part of any analysis and sample containers, sample valves and any other devices that come into contact with the sample should all be clean and preferably flushed with the sample before filling. In particular, sampling points on tanks should be washed, brushed or flushed. The simplest way is to run a few litres of wine through the point before the sample is taken. Another way to ensure clean and disinfected sample points is to have a squirt bottle of 70% ethanol/distilled water handy. This is a common disinfecting reagent used in microbiology labs and is an easy, no fuss and effective way to flush and disinfect sample points before taking a sample. It is a common misconception that the stronger the ethanol solution, the better it is at killing micro-organisms. In fact, a 70% ethanol solution is more effective at killing micro-organisms than a stronger solution because the presence of water is thought to assist in the denaturing of proteins in micro-organisms. After cleaning the sample point, a small volume of wine should still be run through the sample point before filling a sample bottle. Take-home lesson: Making sure you get a representative sample of any wine is a critical part of any analysis. Ensure all sampling equipment (bottles, sample points etc.) are clean, flushed and/or disinfected before taking a sample.

DIFFICULT TO FILTER WINE The plate resulting from the microbes present in the sampling point – but not in the wine in the tank.

In this sample we found moulds and yeasts including some ‘lovely’ Rhodotorula yeast species. Rhodotorula have very striking orange/red colonies when grown on a plate. Moulds are not normally found in wine and further discussion with the winemaker suggested the wine was stable, well sulfited and was expected to contain no microbes at all. Further discussions revealed the sample had been taken from a small sample valve on the tank. The drain line of the valve was inspected and found to contain drops of wine inside the outlet. Closer inspection also

Several 2016 wines were sent recently for analysis just prior to bottling. The winemaker suspected that there were Botrytis effects in the wine and was concerned about filtration issues prior to bottling. Glucans are a long chain polysaccharide that are produced by Botrytis and can cause filter blocking, so glucan tests were done. Only one of the wines showed high levels of glucans and would certainly have caused filtration issues. We recommended that the winemaker use an enzyme treatment (Rapidase Batonnage) for removing glucans. This enzyme has glucanase activity and reduces the level of glucans in a wine.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

Sampling is a critical part of any analysis and sample containers, sample valves and any other devices that come into contact with the sample should all be clean and preferably ﬂushed with the sample before filling. Take-home lesson: CONCLUSION If fruit has Botrytis infection, glucans are normally formed A number of potential wine problems can be identified or in the wine. The presence of glucans can have serious impacts solved by some simple and cost effective lab tests. on subsequent filtration of the wine. These tests can also point to an effective treatment for A simple test can confirm if this is going to be an issue. removing the concern. Oenobrands_FinalTouch_A4.pdf Oenobrands_FinalTouch_A4.pdf 1 27/08/2015 1 3:41 27/08/2015 pm 3:41problems pm Effective treatment by glucanase enzymes can solve the problem. Several that have been observed in our labs have been discussed in this article and hopefully some lessons learnt. HAZY WHITE WINE Sampling techniques of wine from tanks were found to be A white wine was recently submitted that had a haze. A causing some issues that weren’t representative of the wine in microscopic examination was done on the isolated deposit and the tank. yeast and bacteria were found. And in some other cases the use of enzymes in winemaking After discussions with the winemaker about the process to remove pectins and glucans solved some issues encountered. used to make the wine, the haze was suspected to also contain A newly utilised test for gluconic acid was also demonstrated to pectins, as pectolytic enzymes had not been used in the be a better guide for wines affected by Botrytis. production process. A pectin stability test was performed and it was quite clear Greg Howell is the founder and Managing Director of that there were pectins in the wine. A further bench trial using Vintessential Laboratories. a clarification enzyme (Rapidase Clear) removed the haze. He can be contacted by email on greg@vintessential.com.au. The clarified wine was then much easier to handle and the More articles on related topics are available on the residual microbes easily removed. Vintessential website: www.vintessential.com.au/resources/articles/ Take-home lesson: Don’t underestimate the usefulness of standard enzyme treatment in white wines and ensure you use the recommended doses.

WINE FROM MOULDY FRUIT

VINTESSENTIAL WINE TEST KITS.

Some lab testing was done on several wines that a customer had bottled and sold but had subsequently deteriorated in the bottle. The fruit for these wines had some mould and Botrytis issues at harvest in 2016 and the winery was interested to know what compounds were present compared to a clean wine so that ‘marker’ compounds could be used in future. Vintessential wine test kits are the only ones The main analysis performed was for gluconic acid: This is a made in Australia by its leading wine-testing laboratory. very good marker of fruit affected by Botrytis. Our kits are dedicated exclusively to our industry, The oxidative enzymes in Botrytis, e.g. Laccase, oxidise with feedback from winemakers leading to glucose to gluconic acid. Levels of this acid in clean fruit and continual improvement and additional kits. wine are typically less than 0.5 g/L. Higher levels can be used as a guide to the level of Botrytis infection. That’s why we’re 100% confident you’ll Laccase analysis was also requested, however this common confirm our kits are the best you’ve ever tested. test is not quantitative and has often raised concerns amongst oenologists and winemakers as to its effectiveness as a predictor of Botrytis infection in fruit. The gluconic acid results varied from less than 0.5 g/L to more than 1.0 g/L. Laccase results were all very low – clearly this was not a good guide. The gluconic acid results can be used as a guide to the level of Botrytis infection and the winemaker did advise that the wines POP touch is a unique POP issolution a unique based solution on naturally based onoccurring naturallymannoproteins occurring mannoproteins that can improve that can theimprove quality the of your quality sparkling of your sparkling were of varying levels of stability. Final touchFinal wines. Not wines. can Notit only noticeably can it noticeably enhance the enhance mouthfeel the and mouthfeel tartaricand stability, tartaricbutstability, it also preserves but it alsotheir preserves elegance, their freshness elegance,and freshness and It was seen that the gluconic acid dataonly was more helpful balance. And balance. it’s convenient: And it’s convenient: regardless regardless of whether your of whether sparkling yourwine sparkling is made wine byisthe made Charmat by theorCharmat traditional or method, traditional you method, simplyyou simply than the more typically tested laccase in correlating with the add Final touch add Final POP touch immediately POP immediately before bottling. before bottling. incidence of botrytis in the vineyard.

HowHow to make to make the perfect the perfect sparkling sparkling wine. wine.

vintessential.com.au vintessential.com.au Email: info@vintessential.com.au Email: info@vintessential.com.au Phone: 1300 Phone: 30 2242 1300(Australia-wide) 30 2242 (Australia-wide) or +61 3 5987 or +61 2242. 3 5987 2242.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

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Take-home lesson: 2196 Boulervard 2196 de la Boulervard Lironde de la Lironde CS 34603 - 34397 CS 34603 Montpellier - 34397 Cedex Montpellier 5 A better way to check Botrytis levels in juice and wine isCedex to 5 RCS MontpellierRCS - SIREN Montpellier 521 285 - SIREN 304 521 285 304 info@oenobrands.com info@oenobrands.com use gluconic acid as an indicator rather than the less precise www.oenobrands.com www.oenobrands.com laccase test.

Grapegrower & Winemaker

ask the AT A GLANCE Potential risks of water additions include: • Chlorine and chlorophenol taints; • Earthy taints; • Hose taints; • Salts; as well as • Flavour, acidity and nutrient dilution.

Adding water to high sugar must IN FEBRUARY, an amendment was made to the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (FSC) to allow limited addition of water to high sugar must and juice to reduce the chance of fermentation problems. Previously water had not been allowed as a direct additive to grape juice, must or wine, with a maximum (cumulative) addition of 70 mL/L water allowable only for the incorporation of permitted additives or processing aids during the winemaking process. HOW MUCH WATER CAN BE ADDED? Water may be added to juice or must to reduce the sugar level to no less than 13.5° Baumé (Bé) (equivalent to 24.3oBrix). This means that the amount of water allowed will depend on the initial sugar level of the juice or must. An additional 70 mL/L (7%) of water can then also be added to incorporate additions.

HOW CAN I CALCULATE HOW MUCH WATER TO ADD? While sugar levels in juice or must are usually measured as Bé or Brix, these measures represent density of the must rather than actual sugar concentration. In addition, because the density of must changes with the amount of solids present, the conversion between Bé or Brix to g/L sugar is not linear; that is, the conversion factor changes with the Bé of the must. This means that calculating the amount of water needed to decrease the Bé to a particular value is not as simple as one might think. As such, the AWRI is working on a water addition calculator, which will be accessible via the AWRI Winemaking Calculators App or from the calculators page on the AWRI website. (https://www.awri.com.au/industry_ support/winemaking_resources/calculators/)

WHAT RECORDS NEED TO BE KEPT? As part of its regulatory function, Wine Australia monitors compliance with the FSC.

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Accordingly, when conducting compliance audits, Wine Australia could ask winemakers to demonstrate compliance by identifying any must or juice ameliorated with water to aid fermentation, and providing accurate records of the resultant Bé level.

ARE THERE RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH WATER ADDITIONS? Chlorine and chlorophenol taints: Mains/potable water is often treated with chlorine, chlorine dioxide, chloramines, ozone and hydrogen peroxide, combinations of these and other minor disinfectants. Chlorination is used in metropolitan areas and chloramines are more commonly used in regional areas where the water has longer to travel. Information about the disinfectants and levels used in local mains water can be sourced from local water authorities. Chlorine-containing disinfectants have potential to introduce chlorine-like or chlorophenol taints into treated must. Brewers use much larger volumes of water in beer production. Water is typically treated to reduce chlorine levels down to <1 mg/L to prevent these taints. Normal ranges of total chlorines in mains water are between 0.5-1.5 mg/L (maximum <5 mg/L) (Australian Drinking Water Guidelines 2011). A 10 to 20% dilution of must with water should reduce the chlorine concentrations in must to below 1 mg/L.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

Chlorine and chloramines can be removed from water by carbon filtration. Reverse osmosis, sparging or boiling water are also options. Sodium thiosulfate can be used to dechlorinate tap water for use in aquariums and swimming pools but is not recommended for water intended for consumption. Earthy taints: Stored water supplies may develop geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol taints, which are responsible for ‘earthy’, ‘musty’, ‘muddy’ aromas. Geosmin taint in water that has been used to push wine through hoses has been known to cross contaminate wines with this aroma. Water aroma should therefore be assessed before addition to musts. Hose taints: Water hoses used for adding water to musts should be food grade to avoid adding any taints. Salts: Water sources across Australia vary in their hardness. Hard water contains high levels of calcium and magnesium salts. Hard water can cause scale build-up on tanks or could introduce higher levels of calcium into must. Water can be softened by water treatment plants but this can then lead to higher levels of sodium and chloride. Water that is too soft, such as water treated by reverse osmosis, can also become corrosive, with potential to damage pipes and fittings. Corrosiveness (Langelier index) is reduced by increasing calcium carbonate concentration. Wineries should be aware of the potential for adding calcium, magnesium, sodium and chloride to musts through

water additions and monitor their concentrations to ensure compliance with maximum export levels for these elements. They should also be aware of the potential risk of calcium instabilities from increased calcium levels. Flavour, acidity and nutrient dilution: Diluting juice or must will proportionally dilute flavour compounds, must nutrients and acidity. Wineries should thus measure and adjust acid and nutrient levels in must post-water addition to ensure successful fermentations.

WHAT WATER SHOULD I USE? The common types of water used in wineries include rainwater, mains/potable water, water from boilers or treated river water. Bore water is not generally recommended for human consumption. The AWRI has always recommended that yeast hydration water should not contain any chlorine as chlorine can affect yeast viability, and it is therefore preferable to use rainwater for any additions. However, as most wineries are unlikely to have the volumes of rainwater required for must dilution, it is advised to use mains /potable water. It is recommended to treat water to remove chlorine/chloramines before addition to must to minimise risks of fermentation problems and/or chlorine-related taints. The AWRI is conducting trials during the 2017 vintage to assess a range of effects of water additions. For more information regarding water additions, contact the AWRI helpdesk on helpdesk@awri.com.au or 08 8313 6600.

Storage - Fermentation Stainless and Mild Steel Fabrication

TANKS & CATWALKS Jury Road, Berri SA. Ph 08 8582 9500 Mark Lewis 0409 459 860 Mark Johnson 0408 822 434 jma@jmaeng.com.au www.jmaeng.com.au

April 2017 – Issue 639

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

business & technology business & technology

Winemaker Hamish Seabrook behind the tasting bar at the new home of Seabrook Wines.

Home run for Seabrook Wines Looking to minimising risk, and boosted by sine good timing, Hamish Seabrook has successfully created a Barossa home for his family wine brand. WINEMAKER HAMISH SEABROOK was determined that following his dream wouldn’t turn into a financial nightmare when he decided to develop a Barossa ‘home’ for his family brand. A fifth-generation member of the Seabrook wine family, Hamish has the industry in his blood. Since 1878 Seabrooks have been in the wine trade, blending, importing, selling or making wine under the company philosophy of ‘sourcing top-quality grapes from the best regions of Australia’. And Hamish has made plenty of great wine from top quality grapes, including as a salaried winemaker in one of those ‘best regions’, the Clare Valley. But that wasn’t enough: his dream was for Seabrook Wines to have physical roots, and ones that he could share with his young family.

A BAROSSA HOME The first step was taken two years ago with the purchase of a 20-acre vineyard in the Barossa, east of Tanunda. An historic cottage on the property was ideal for a cellar door, so the dream was on its way. “What I wanted to do was make wine in the traditional sense – and I wanted a piece of the Barossa as well.

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“So for the first time now my family owns vineyards,” Seabrook said. “I’m a believer that if you’ve got good grapes and a good patch of dirt, you’re always going to have good wine. It’s about having that complete control all the way. “And having a cellar door for us is not a big money making machine. “It’s a way to connect with people, show them what we’re doing and show them our wines.”

ALL IN THE TIMING Seabrook left his full-time winemaker role with Kirrihill in Clare to concentrate on his own brand and run the new tasting room. It was a risky decision in some ways, but he felt the time was right – for both him and his family. “It’s a good time in my life right now, and it’s what (my wife) Jo and I wanted to do,” he said. “I’ve been a winemaker in many different guises, worked for many different people, and it was either go up through the ranks working for someone else or do my own business. It just made sense timewise to do it now. “I loved the last job I had – the challenge and the buzz of vintage, when you do so many tonnes and crazy hours. It was a fantastic job, and I had a steady www.winetitles.com.au

and reliable income. But when you’ve got your own vineyard and you know what you’ve got to do every day, it’s really satisfying: you’re growing something and it’s your business, and that’s so much more rewarding. “Then there’s the opportunity to turn off the machinery and go and pick up the kids, because you’re on your time not someone else’s. If I’d waited four or five years I’d have missed out on that time with the kids, so it was a lifestyle change as well. “I was a nervous wreck at first and scared about the future, as was Jo, but we decided that if you don’t ever try and don’t give it a go, you’ll never know.” The more buoyant mood across the grape and wine community also helped with the Seabrooks’ decision. “Time-wise in the industry it made sense as well. There are lot of small producers out there right now doing a lot of good things,” Seabrook said. “In the last 10 years I’ve watched a lot of small producers show what they can do, so I figured that now was a good time for us to get out and do something too.”

LIMITING THE RISK While establishing most businesses requires some capital, Seabrook said they April 2017 – Issue 639

were careful not to take on too much debt, and therefore too much financial risk. “Financially we’ve been fairly sensible about what we’ve done,” he said. “A lot of the work has been respectful to the old cottage and you don’t have to spend a lot to do that. We also applied for and got both a cellar door grant and a heritage grant, which obviously helped a lot there. “Other than that, we funded it and did the work ourselves, and that really lowers the risk. “Having a diverse business also helps make it work: in addition to the cellar door, we have income from selling some of our grapes and I have an export company selling wines overseas. You have to have a diversity of incomes, otherwise the risk is high. “That said, we’re like most Australians – the bank owns everything we have.” The other risk Seabrook faced was the regulatory processes involved with setting up a cellar door in a heritage building. Luckily, the only setbacks were minor. “We had a hiccup with trying to get our application through in the first place – it took so long,” he said. “But council have been good to us and we really haven’t had too many problems. Working with an old cottage is always fun, of course. “Ours was first built in 1854 and then built on and built on, so it’s all different levels and different roof heights, and it does have a lot of architectural issues that we need to address. “But overall, it seems to have gone really well, and all the liquor licensing and other legislation stuff just worked.”

LOST… AND FOUND Seabrook said that a physical home for the business will strengthen the brand, in terms of both the cellar door ‘face’ and the ability to better communicate the story. “We’ve been kind of lost. I started making wine for Seabrooks in 2005 and in that time we’ve never had a home. We’d sell through distributors or over the internet, but we never had a face,” he said. “So we definitely feel that at last we have a home for our brand. “And while our range is still very diversified – Barossa, Great Western, Yarra Valley, Eden Valley, Langhorne Creek – and our family history really is Melbourne, it makes sense to have a home like this in the Barossa. “I love the people, I love the community, and it’s a place where I love making wine. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.” April 2017 – Issue 639

There are occasional days when you’re slammed with so many menial things. In the past I would have had people under me doing them but you’ve just got to get on and do it all. Some days it’s overwhelming – how am I going to get all this done? But you just do. You juggle the smaller things and often you find the urgency is not as great as you thought. The opportunity for consumers to “meet the people who make the wine” is an important part of Seabrook’s business plan, despite the time-consuming aspect of running a tasting room. “Winemakers all want to be there at the cellar door meeting people – and people want to meet us, to hear what we’re doing,” Seabrook said “You can make great connections and really communicate the story behind your wines; that element which makes them different. “But if you don’t have passionate people behind the counter who believe in you, it’s the opposite - a bad experience – and with social media, all it takes now is that one time. That’s one reason why it’s just me here.” The other reason the winemaker is behind the tasting bar is, no doubt, financial. In fact, Seabrook has taken on a variety of roles within the business. “I do pretty much everything, from vineyard manager and cellar door manager to toilet cleaner,” he said. “The cellar door’s open five days, and Tuesday and Wednesday are the days I’m in the vineyard or visiting our distribution clients, so it’s pretty full on… between 10pm and midnight I have to myself, and that’s about it. www.winetitles.com.au

“There are occasional days when you’re slammed with so many menial things. In the past I would have had people under me doing them but you’ve just got to get on and do it all. “Some days it’s overwhelming – how am I going to get all this done? But you just do. You juggle the smaller things and often you find the urgency is not as great as you thought.”

TAKING IT SLOWLY And while the vineyard has allowed for the Seabrook Wines’ production to expand, Hamish says there’s no urgency about that either. “We’re not making thousands and thousands of cases but we are making some moves to grow. It’s costly but you’ve got to do it,” he said. “And the reality is that having your own vineyard lowers your production cost – there’s no mark-up or margin in it. “It really comes down to what a friend of mine, Tim Smith, said when I was breaking away from fulltime employment: ‘it’s scary, but you do make money because you’re forced to’. “It gave me a lot of confidence, so we went for it. I really see it as Seabrook Wines having been in caretaker mode, and now we’ve put it in full swing.” Grapegrower & Winemaker

business & technology

The science of increasing sales and profit by driving cellar door business: Part Two Richard Warland is an expert in direct marketing and customer relationship management. He believes there is a lot of room for wineries to improve on in these areas. But he urges the industry not to be misled – he believes there are people and companies who will blind you with science and try to sell you a black box which generates sales with no input required. WHY ‘SCIENCE’? In the February edition of Australian & New Zealand Grapegrower and Winemaker we looked at the importance to the small winemaker of Direct to Consumer (DtC) or ‘cellar door’ sales. So I am not telling you anything new? Well, no… but I have no doubt that few small wineries are achieving their maximum potential through this sales channel. Very few traditional DtC businesses of any persuasion do. Why? Because most small wine businesses lack the time and resources, both human and technical and the understanding of the marketing science required. Successful Direct Marketing (DM) of wine requires the same

Wine is an emotional product and most, if not all of your customers, love to think they have a relationship with you the winemaker, and your business. 92 Grapegrower & Winemaker

intellectual skills as online marketing does and for that matter, direct marketing of financial products, books (think Reader’s Digest) or household gadgets. Now you might think that Reader’s Digest is a long forgotten dinosaur, but they are still part of a media group boasting 53.8 million customers and they still successfully employ the science that they played a large part in developing back in the last century.

CRM MYTHS In my last article I explained the simple concept that lies at the base of successful DtC marketing – CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Don’t be mislead – in these days of rapid advances in technology and self-serving online experts, there are people and companies who will blind you with science and try to sell you a black box which generates sales with no input required. My pet hate: “A CRM” When you see or hear these words, be warned. The person at the source of them does not understand the concept. CRM is strategy-driven practice. It is not a ‘thing’ and cannot be bought, although it can be learnt.

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April 2017 – Issue 639

At the risk of repeating myself, the principles of CRM are simple: • Know your customers; and • Use this knowledge to serve or communicate with your customers, with offers that are relevant, through the channel they prefer, at a time they prefer.

WINE AND CRM: PERFECT PARTNERS Products and services which are ‘information hungry’ are well suited to a CRM strategy and wine is one of the best. Think of it this way: Do you really want to have ‘a relationship’ with the manufacturer of your toilet paper? No. But wine is an emotional product and most, if not all of your customers, love to think they have a relationship with you the winemaker, and your business. This is becoming even more pronounced as consumer demand increases for ‘wholesome natural’ foods from a known source. Significantly, research indicates that this desire is overrepresented in your growing customer segments, the young adults of Generations X, Y and ‘the Millennials’.

THE WINE INFERIORITY COMPLEX I use this term frequently and if you have been in the industry and attended as many public tastings for as long as I have, you will instinctively understand. For many wine buyers this feeling of inferiority or uncertainness is exacerbated in ‘big box’ retail shops and supermarkets displaying thousands of SKUs. And the industry often makes it worse. Two major factors are at play here: To most people, wine is a confusing consumable with thousands of mysterious variables. The vast majority of people are nervous about investing their hard earned money on an untasted wine and worse still, serving it to their friends. (Can you imagine how this plays out in China where “saving face” is paramount)? Applying your CRM strategy and DM techniques, you can use this inferiority complex to strengthen your relationship with your customers. Yes, those who taste at your cellar door are given confidence in those wines, but there are sophisticated data-driven ways of reaching out to many more of your distant past customers and cementing your bond, thus increasing your sales. No, I am not talking “Tasting Notes” with details of alcohol, acid, tannin, sugar etc.

to automate the majority of the functions and the skills to derive the actionable insights required. Furthermore this service comes in the form of SaaS – Software as a Service, meaning that fixed fees are very low and your work is done on a pay-per-service basis. This is not only made possible by today’s technology but also because agencies like mine know that we will deliver incremental sales and are therefore happy to take a ‘success fee’. Needless to say, your customer data is treated in strict confidence - as if it were compromised; we would be out of business in no time.

About the author: Richard Warland is a Roseworthy Oenology graduate (class of 1970-71). He made wine in the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Hunter before moving on to sales and marketing management and thence to CEO positions in wine direct marketing and retail. From 2005 – 14 he lived in Hong Kong and Macau, consulting on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to companies spanning many industries in China. He is now based in the Adelaide Hills and consults on direct and loyalty marketing in Australia and Greater China. Since 2010 he has lectured on CRM to the multi-national MSc Wine Business class at The Burgundy School of Business in Dijon. Richard can be contacted at richard.warland@rtsronline.com Keep an eye out for more articles from Richard Warland in future editions of this journal, where he will expand on the issues involved and techniques of implementing a CRM profit centre strategy in your business.

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PROOF OF CONCEPT Way back in 2003 I led a project to develop an automated data-driven offer program for Cellarmaster Wines. Applying leading edge technology, we were advised at the time that it was a world-first. The resulting ‘weapons in our armoury’ and derived benefits were too complex to discuss here, but the sales results were outstanding and most significantly, we did not have to discount to achieve those results. Better still, because the output was targeted on a one to one basis, it is unlikely that our competitors actually saw what we were doing. Furthermore, even if they saw it, in order to understand what we were doing, they would have had to ‘salt’ our customer base with multiple active buyers. How many retailers would do that?

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HELP IS AT HAND (For those who missed the first article in this series) While CRM strategy must be embraced by you and your staff, the analytical, technological and communication functions can be outsourced. Agencies such as my company have the software April 2017 – Issue 639

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Contact Nicole Evans on 08 8369 9515 or n.evans@winetitles.com.au Grapegrower & Winemaker

business & technology

Yalumba launches $350 ‘super claret’ AUSTRALIA’S OLDEST family owned winery, Yalumba, is set to launch a $350 Cabernet Shiraz blend. The Caley, a blend featuring both Coonawarra and Barossa fruit, honours Fred Caley Smith, the grandson of Yalumba’s founder Samuel Smith; and horticulturist who had a profound

impact on the development of Yalumba’s orchards and vineyards. “The Caley is the pinnacle of a long winemaking journey seeking excellence – a ‘super-claret’ that rightfully honours one of Yalumba’s most adventurous sons,” vigneron Robert Hill-Smith said. “It is the result of an unwavering

Australian wine is at an exciting time in its evolution. It can use an authentic story of aspiration, struggle and persistence. The Caley is that story – of a long journey that is a long way from over.

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commitment by Yalumba to Australia’s own unique red wine style – Cabernet and Shiraz – from the Galway Clarets of the 1940s, through the Signature and FDR 1A that started in the 60s and 70s and The Reserve that was created in the 1990s. “I see it as a symbol of Yalumba’s perseverance and patience – an acknowledgment of the importance of time in crafting great wine.” In an unusual twist, the wine had already claimed a show trophy well ahead of being revealed to wine critics – the first release of The Caley, from the 2012 vintage, won The Great Australian Red trophy in 2015 (the wine competition dedicated to blends of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon). Sourced from Yalumba’s own Menzies Cabernet Sauvignon estates in Coonawarra and two old vine Shiraz vineyards in Barossa (Yalumba’s Horseshoe vineyard and the Burgemeister Linke Block), The Caley is structured for longevity. “The Caley brings together the linear elegance, firm tannins and persistent acid structure of Coonawarra Cabernet with the voluptuous, textural richness of Barossa Shiraz,” Hill-Smith said. “I felt that given our long history in the making of this quirky blend of Cabernet and Shiraz, a Coonawarra-Barossa creation may yet become our ultimate achievement. “Our very Australian-ness is captured in the pragmatism of so many of Australia’s early wines – lyrical creations that were about the wine, not the rules – and The Caley is such a wine. “It is a great example of our rich wine culture of experimentation and a willingness to give it a go.” Fred Caley Smith is best remembered for an 18-month ground-breaking research journey that he undertook in 1893 and 1894 to the USA, UK, Europe, the Middle East, Sri Lanka and India. He sent home detailed letters to his father very few days on this journey, and these have been kept in the Yalumba archives – providing inspiration and encouragement for generations since. “Australian wine is at an exciting time in its evolution,” Hill-Smith said. “It can use an authentic story of aspiration, struggle and persistence. The Caley is that story – of a long journey that is a long way from over.” The international release was planned for May 12 – the 124th anniversary of Fred Caley Smith’s arrival in San Francisco. April 2017 – Issue 639

Australian wine exports to Japan APRIL 1ST 2017 MARKED the fourth round of tariff cuts taking effect under the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA). The JAEPA entered into force in January 2015 and will see the Elimination of the 15 percent tariff on bottled wine by 2021 through incremental reductions over time. The latest reduction for wine tariffs sees the rates drop to 7.5 percent or ¥125/litre (whichever is the less, subject to the minimum customs duty of 33.5 yen/l) for bottled wine and 9.5 percent or ¥125/litre (whichever is the less, subject

to the minimum customs duty of 42.64 yen/l). Under the agreement, these tariffs will continue to be reduced each year until eliminated. The impact of this agreement is already being felt, as highlighted by Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, the Honourable Steven Ciobo in a recent media release. Minster Ciobo noted that bottled wine exports had increased by 13 percent to reach $35.6 million over 2014 to 2016. “Free Trade Agreements are pivotal to improving Australian business’ access

to international markets and the JAEPA is no exception,” said Tony Battaglene, Winemakers’ Federation of Australia chief executive. “WFA will continue to work closely with the Federal Government to ensure the Australian Wine industry benefits from Australia’s FTA’s with partnering countries. “The JAEPA provides Australian producers a competitive advantage which will only improve as the tariffs continue to reduce.”

Penny’s Hill: Back-to-back Mundus Vini awards FOR THE SECOND YEAR running, McLaren Vale estate producer Penny’s Hill won ‘best of show – Australian red’ at the 2017 Mundus Vini Grand International Wine Awards in Neustadt, Germany. The Penny’s Hill 2015 Malpas Road Merlot was awarded the same trophy won last year by the 2014 Footprint Shiraz. In an international field of more than 6000 entries from more than 150 wine growing regions, Penny’s Hill wines were awarded four gold medals. A passionate ambassador for the McLaren Vale region and no stranger to international awards and accolades, Alexia Roberts, Penny’s Hill group winemaker, rated the Mundus Vini wins as exceptional. “To be awarded the ‘best of show – Australian red’ two years running in such a strong international

I’m proud and excited by the success Alexia and her team are enjoying. Her passion, talent and dedication have raised the international standing of Penny’s Hill to the highest level. competition is truly rewarding,” Roberts said. “McLaren Vale’s climate is well suited to producing premium Merlot. The Malpas Road Merlot is grown on a single vineyard and shows great fruit weight and generosity. Balanced by fine

savoury tannins, this wine has great drinkability.” For Tony Parkinson, Penny’s Hill founder, the win marked another chapter in the success of the brand’s estateproduced McLaren Vale wines. “This is an outstanding result,” Parkinson said. “I’m proud and excited by the success Alexia and her team are enjoying. Her passion, talent and dedication have raised the international standing of Penny’s Hill to the highest level.” Now considered one of the most significant wine competitions in the world, Mundus Vini was founded in 2001. Members of the judging panel include leading international oenologists, top sommeliers, wine merchants, wine journalists and scientists from all over the world.

St Hallett on board with Virgin Australia VIRGIN AUSTRALIA and Barossa winery St Hallett have unveiled a wine specifically blended for consumption at high altitude. ‘The Duo’ will be served on board Virgin Australia flights in business class and can be sampled in Virgin Australia lounges. Atmospheric pressure and drier air conditions on board flights are known to affect the taste of food and beverages, so Virgin Australia worked with St Hallett winemaker Shelley Cox to create a wine that delivers balanced acidity

and texture when consumed in the air. Cox said The Duo is a blend sourced from both the Barossa and Eden Valleys to achieve a perfect balance at altitude. While some airlines select wines based on their characteristics at altitude, it is believed this is the first blend actually created with these conditions in mind. “The drier air in the cabin can make it hard to really capture a wine’s aroma. This is where the Eden Valley component comes in,” Cox said. “The higher altitude of the Eden Valley

means cooler conditions and creates Shiraz with lovely overt floral aromas. You only need a small component to really lift a whole blend. “We played around with a lot of different options to ensure the acid and texture balance was right. It was a great experience and we are confident the wine will deliver in both taste and aroma on the plane at altitude.”

We played around with a lot of different options to ensure the acid and texture balance was right. It was a great experience and we are confident the wine will deliver in both taste and aroma on the plane at altitude.

April 2017 – Issue 639

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calendar

looking back

Australia & New Zealand March 23-9 Apr Taste Great Southern, Various locations in Great Southern, WA, www.greatsoutherntastewa.com

31-9 Apr Canberra District Wine Week, Canberra & Regions, ACT, www.canberrawines.com.au

26 Glenlyon Fine Food & Wine Fayre, Glenlyon Recreation Reserve, Glenlyon, VIC, www.glenlyon.vic.au

31-9 Apr Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Various venues throughout Melbourne & Regional Victoria, VIC, www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au

31-9 Apr F.O.O.D Week (Food of Orange District), Orange & surrounding Shires, NSW, www.orangefoodweek.com.au

2 Anderson's Mill Festival, Smeaton, VIC, www.andersonsmillfest.org.au

14 Easter Performances @ Sinclair's Gully, Nortin Summit, SA, www.sinclairsgully.com

7-8 Coonawarra After Dark Weekend, Coonawarra & Penola, SA, www.coonawarra.org

15-16 Campbells Easter Picnic, Campbells Wines, Rutherglen, VIC, www.campbellswines.com.au

7-9 A Little Bit of Italy in Broke, NSW, www. littlebitofitaly.com.au

15-17 Brown Brothers Easter Family Festival, Milawa Vineyard, Milawa, VIC, www.brownbrothers.com.au

8-9 Harvest Festival at Shaw Vineyard Estate & Flint at Shaw Vineyard, Murrumbateman, NSW, www.shawvineyards.com.au

16 Pizzini Wines Easter Sunday Family Day, King Valley, VIC, www.pizzini.com.au 19-23 Barossa Vintage Festival 2017, Various Barossa Valley venues, SA, www.barossavintagefestival.com.au

International March 19-21 ProWein 2017, Düsseldorf, Germany, www.prowein.com 19-21 Superior Taste Awards 2017, Brussels, Belgium, www.itqi.com 19-22 IFE17, London, UK, www.ife.co.uk 19-22 Pro2Pac, ExCel, London, UK, www.pro2pac.co.uk 23-26 Wine Masters Challenge - XVIII World Wine Contest, Estoril, Portugal, www.winemasterschallenge.co.uk

23-27 Estoril Organic Wine Contest 2017, Estoril, Portugal, www.estorilorganicwinecontest.co.uk 28-29 International Wine Tourism Exhibition, Conference & Workshop, Barcelona, Spain, www.iwinetc.com 28-31 Shanghai International Wine & Spirits Exhibition 2017, New International Expo Center, Shanghai, China, www.winefair.com.cn 31 TERROIRS D'IMAGES International Grape and Wine Photo Exhibit, France, www.oenovideo.oeno.tm.fr

April 5-8 Food & Hotel Indonesia 2017, Jakarta, Indonesia, www.pamerindo.com 6-9 VIINIEXPO 2017, Messukeskus, Helsinki, Finland, www.messukeskus.com/sites2/ Viiniexpo/en

April 1987 Wine consumption in Australia: 1980-85

April

7-9 Food Show Christchurch, NZ, www. foodshow.co.nz

We step back in time to see what was happening through the pages of Grapegrower and Winemaker this month 10, 20 and 30 years ago.

9-10 Riesling du Monde 2017, Les Grands Concours du Monde 2017, Pinot Blanc du Monde 2017, Sylvaner du Monde 2017, Gewürztraminer du Monde 2017, Pinot Gris du Monde 2017, Strasbourg, France, www.lesgrandsconcoursdumonde. cominternationalwinechallenge.com

Total wine consumption has steadily increased by 17% from 18.2 litres to 21.3 litres over this period. This level of wine consumption can be contrasted to the previously low levels of wine consumption in 1958-59 of 5.0 litres and 1968-69 of 8.2 litres to indicate the major extent of the increase across a 25-year period. The major factor has been a 30% increase in table wine consumption. (Editor’s note: By 2013-14 wine consumption per capita was estimated at 28.73 litres 2013-14 – a 26% increase on the early 80s figure)

April 1997 Riverina record harvest Grapegrowers in the Riverina harvested a record winegrape crop in 1997. NSW Agriculture put the 1997 crop at 125,000 tonnes, up 12% on the record 111,000 tonnes produced in 1996. West End Wines owner Bill Calabria said red grape quality was improving every year and noted the 1997 Shiraz was displaying inky, black juice and concentrated, berry/ blackcurrant flavours.

April 2007 Putting your wine online When profiling heavy internet users (those who are online eight or more times per week) against the general population, Roy Morgan data tells us these people are 48% more likely to belong to a wine club; 30% more likely to order wine in restaurants when in the company of others; 27% more likely to purchase by the case; and 28% more likely to buy wine based on a good review.

JD = judging date CD= closing date April 2017 – Issue 639

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

Marketplace

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VINE GRAFTING Bruce Gilbert 0428 233 544 Brian Phillips 0417 131 764

WINE PRESS SERVICING • Preventative maintenance & breakdown repairs for all makes and models. • 24/7 coverage during vintage • Large inventory of spare parts. • Membrane replacement. • PLC upgrades and design improvements. Electrical & mechanical expertise.

TO ADVERTISE CONTACT

03 9455 3339 • www.rapidfil.com.au

brucethegrafter@gmail.com www.brucethegrafter.com

Nicole Evans on (08) 8369 9513

*SP-only

Marketplace

Ring Ashley or Angelo for demonstrations or any participating New Holland dealer.

Model – G170

G65 (tow behind) Serial No. 2009

Build year – 1999

Manual head

Build Year – 2000

Engine hours – 2445 Head hours – 802

Ashley Barratt – 0419 833 606 Angelo Dicesare - 0408 856 418 Summertown Ph (08) 8139 7200 Adelaide Ph (08) 8139 7250 Narracoorte – (08) 8762 0123

www.braud.com.au 98 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Model – G108 Build Year – 2001

G65 (tow behind) Head hrs – 1836

www.winetitles.com.au

Machine hrs – 3987

Serial No. 0105

Build year – 2000

Hydraulic head

April 2017 – Issue 639

WIN A

FREE TRIP TO

SIMEI@DRINKTEC Prize includes economy class return ticket to Munich, Germany and 4 night’s accommodation*

If you’re in the business of making wine, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. You can discover the latest winemaking and bottling machinery at SIMEI@drinktec in 2017. Covering production, conditioning, storage, bottling, packaging and logistics – you won’t want to miss it! This international premier event will be held in Munich Germany from 11 to 15 September. Complete our short Grapegrower & Winemaker survey and competition questions for your chance to win. Entry is open to new and existing Australian based Grapegrower & Winemaker subscribers. *Visit: www.winetitles.com.au/Simei2017.html for full terms and conditions and entry details.

WORLD LEADER IN WINE TECHNOLOGY

27TH EDITION INTERNATIONAL ENOLOGICAL AND BOTTLING EQUIPMENT EXHIBITION

ORGANIZED BY

11th-15th September 2017 Messe München - Germany

SUPPORTED BY

www.simei.it www.drinktec.com/simei

T: +618 8369 9500 F: +618 8369 9501

W: www.winetitles.com.au E: subs@winetitles.com.au

Proven solutions using crossflow filtration with ceramic membranes.

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