Grapegrower & Winemaker - May 2015

MAY 2015

FAST &

FURIOUS

Vintage hits hard and fast

RETURN TO GROWTH What does history tell us

BEST OF BOUTIQUE

Size isn't everything

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from the editor

Nathan Gogoll Editor

We need more people like Bob McLean I’VE HEARD a few yarns about how the Australian wine industry ‘grew up’, how it transitioned from a fortified production base to focus on table wines and how success in the domestic and international markets was achieved.

Of course, it all happened way before I started paying attention in the late 90s, I just assumed the modern world of wine brands, marketing and international attention was normal.

But as I’ve heard about what happened across the 70s, 80s and 90s, I’ve noticed there were some very important characters involved. And it seems to me one of these was a man who captured attention as much due his personality and hospitality, as the wine he was involved with. It was Bob McLean.

I think I had some vague awareness when I was still at school that Bob was holding court everywhere he went in the 90s for St Hallett, for ‘brand Barossa’, and for Australian wine for that matter. And even I knew he was Sir Lunchalot. But I didn’t once associate that nickname with a ‘snout in the trough’.

By the time Lion Nathan was acquired

by Kirin, I was working as a country journalist in the Barossa. I remember discussing how we should cover the news St Hallett had new owners with my editor and it was an obvious choice to document the history of the winery ownership so far. I drove up Menglers Hill to interview Bob. We sat in the winery and looked out at his young bush vines.

He was happy to talk about all his involvement, all the big business decisions he was involved in, but not necessarily willing to see it all in print. At a lot of different stages during a long conversation Bob would ask me to put my pen down. He’d wait for me to do so, then lean back in his chair and tell me something that sounded completely far-fetched (but no

May 2015 – Issue 616

doubt was almost true) or lean forward on the table with a raised eyebrow and offer an observation that really surprised me.

The interview was interrupted by someone having a pretty tricky time advising Bob on how to get his Shiraz to respond to the bush vine plan; and by a couple glasses of wine.

The story I could have written, if I hadn’t put my pen down, was far more interesting than what made it onto the front page. Even so, I got a phone call from Stuart Blackwell the day the Barossa Herald came out with ‘Old Block: New owners’ on the front page. He’d been taking phone calls from growers all morning who wanted to know how Japanese ownership would affect them selling their grapes to the winery. Stuart wasn’t impressed, said I should have known to call him first. But Bob said it was alright, even told me he’d keep an eye on me.

www.winebiz.com.au

There are so many people in the wine industry who knew Bob so much better than I did and in the past few weeks I’ve been really pleased to see lots of stories shared. He was somebody a lot of people looked up.

Bob was a people person. And his personality was a great fit for talking up the Australian wine industry and selling wine (not enough people are spending enough energy on the ‘talking up’ part these days). When I think of key words that sum up both Bob and Australia’s most famous wine export, Shiraz, what springs to mind is… honest, generous, robust. Which are great qualities for people and for Aussie Shiraz, but what are they without a good amount of fun?

Right now we need more people like Bob helping to talk up Aussie wine and having fun while they do it.

Enjoy the read.

Nathan Gogoll

Grapegrower & Winemaker

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contents features MAY 2015

9 22 51 54 63 79 88 92

Australian vintage report Best of boutique Post harvest vineyard care Pruning Frost management Oak & tanks Education Information technology

COVER Small producers are hands on. This photo, from the Coonawarra Jack winery which crushes less than 100 tonnes, sums it up perfectly. Jared Stringer, the assistant winemaker, was photographed by colleague Rachel Lees.

FAST &

FURIOUS

Vintage hits hard and fast

RETURN TO GROWTH What does history tell us

BEST OF BOUTIQUE

Size isn't everything

news

grapegrowing

On the grapevine .....................................6

Return to growth ....................................33

Australian Vintage report ..........................9

In this report Professor Anderson, from the University of Adelaide’s School of Economics, outlines the distinct cycles in the wine sector’s history and uses these to strategise about how a return to growth.

Emilie Reynolds has collated an extensive summary of the 2015 vintage, by region. There were a few similarities, grapes ripened early and vintage was more condensed than most regions are used to.

Relative sustainability of organic, biodynamic and conventional viticulture ............................40

My view: Political correctness gone too far .............21

This article is the first of a two part look at recent research carried out to establish what impact different viticulture techniques have on the impact of soil health, vine health and wine characteristics.

Movers & shakers .....................................8

Best of boutique......................................22 There are more than 2000 22 Australian wine producers crushing less than 250 tonnes and more than 420 NZ producers who fall into the same category. In fact, the vast majority of producers across the Australian and New Zealand wine landscape (84%) crush less than 250 tonnes.

And there is some excellent wine being made by the small producers.

We turn the spotlight on this section of the industry.

Small and medium-sized enterprises dominate...............................45 SMEs typically thrive in industries that have low market share concentrations and this explains part of the reason they are prevalent in the wine industry.

8000 vintages of experience to draw from ..........................................48 The Australian wine industry is set to benefit from Georgian viticulture and winemaking knowledge.

Measuring nutrients in vines .................... 51 Eutypa breakthrough ..............................54

regulars 6 What’s online 29 The United Grower 47 Ask the AWRI 4 Grapegrower & Winemaker

76 97 98 99

www.winebiz.com.au

Young Gun Looking back Advertiser index Marketplace classifieds May 2015 – Issue 616

May 2015: Issue 616 winemaking The AWRI at 60 ......................................64

Regional roundup: NSW .........................78

64

The safe approach to using oak powder...................................79

sales & marketing High Prices at Barossa wine auction ........83 WineTech update ....................................86 The Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) celebrated its 60th birthday in late April. Such a milestone provides an opportunity to look back at the organisation’s history as well as think about the future of research into grapegrowing and wine production.

Roundtable: State of the industry .............68 We’ve put a range of questions to industry leaders this month. They have reported back on the reasons for positivity and negativity and measured the achievements on ‘big issues’ across the past 12 months. We also asked them what keeps them up at night.

Winemaker in court ................................75 Young Gun ............................................. 76 76

This 28-year-old, who has seven generations of winemaking to lean on, has instead stepped out to create his own wine brand.

PUBLISHER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE Hartley Higgins

PRODUCTION Simon Miles

MANAGING EDITOR Elizabeth Bouzoudis

CIRCULATION: Melissa Smithen subs@winetitles.com.au

EDITOR Nathan Gogoll editor@grapeandwine.com.au EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Dr Jim Fortune, Denis Gastin, Dr Steve Goodman, Dr Terry Lee, Paul van der Lee, Bob Campbell MW, Prof Dennis Taylor and Mary Retallack EDITORIAL Emilie Reynolds journalist@winetitles.com.au ADVERTISING SALES Chas Barter sales@grapeandwine.com.au May 2015 – Issue 616

business & technology AGL wine scholarship..............................88 Survey reveals hidden costs.....................91 How compliant are you ...........................92 Vineyard of the future .............................94 94

WINETITLES PTY. LTD. 630 Regency Road, Broadview, South Australia 5083 Phone: (08) 8369 9500 Fax: (08) 8369 9501 info@winetitles.com.au www.winebiz.com.au @Grape_and_Wine Printing by Lane Print Group, Adelaide © Contents copyright Winetitles Pty Ltd 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Print Post Approved PP535806/0019 Articles published in this issue of Grapegrower & Winemaker may also appear in full or as extracts on our website.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

5

on the grapevine what’s online

Australian technical conference returning to Adelaide in 2016

Anti-Muslim whine about wine HATE campaign, the new Temperance, a joke or a misguided attempt to turn wine into water? A campaign targeting halal certified products missed the mark completely when it tried it took on one of Australia’s best known wine brands, Jacob’s Creek. The anti-Muslim Facebook group, Boycott Halal in Australia, accused Jacob’s Creek of trying to have its wine certificated as halal. The accusation came on the eve of Sunday’s halal food expo at Fairfield when police were called to break up fights between anti-Islam and antiracism protestors, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

Hill of Grace to sell at a higher price than Grange AUSTRALIA might witness a very unusual price war before long — a tussle to be the nation’s most expensive wine.

The Barossa Valley’s Henschke family have decided they want their iconic Hill of Grace Shiraz, generally regarded as the second best Australian wine, to sell at a higher price point than Penfolds Grange, and be seen as Australia’s best. Grange currently sells for $785 while the 2009 Hill of Grace is listed at $595, reports The Australian.

More marketing, rather than a levy THE Winemakers’ Federation of Australia says a proposed 25 cent temporary levy to be added to all bottles of wine is a good discussion starter, but suggests better marketing overseas would bring more benefits. The levy was an idea from Senator Nick Xenophon who has sounded a dire warning about the health of Australia’s wine and grape growing industry, reports the ABC.

.com.au Australia’s wine industry portal by Winetitles Australia’s wine industry portal by

Winetitles

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.winebiz.com.au/dwn.

THE 16th Australian Wine Industry Technical Conference and Trade Exhibition is returning to Adelaide in July 2016. The program will include

esteemed local and international speakers, workshops, technical posters, an expansive trade exhibition and networking events.

A call for workshop submissions and poster abstracts will take place in the coming months and registrations will open in February 2016. Contact information and further details are available at www.awitc.com.au.

Climate change focus in clonal trials A MAJOR AGWA-funded project assessing clonal variability in Chardonnay and Shiraz aims to improve the wine industry’s understanding of how clones can contribute to wine style as well as their best possible location.

Dr Michael McCarthy, principal scientist viticulture with the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), said a lack of such knowledge was a major reason why industry uptake of different clones has been slow.

“With the Australian wine industry seeking more complexity and regional differences in wines, there is the opportunity to demonstrate that clones may bring another level of interest in wines,” he said.

McCarthy said the research was investigating how knowledge of clonal variability can help the industry prepare for future climate change.

“The Australian industry is fortunate in that, due to a number of factors, vineyards have greater longevity than

in a number of other countries,” he said.

“However, if climate change projections prove correct, vineyards planted now will experience warmer and probably drier conditions throughout their lifetime.

“The challenge, therefore, is to know which clones should be planted now for this future. Can we use existing differences in the present climate between geographically separated sites as a surrogate for climate change and gain some insights about how clones may perform in this future climate?”

The four-year project, which began in June 2013, has been evaluating clones from mature field plantings. A standard set of viticultural observations have been made for all clones at each site and data loggers record canopy temperatures during the growing season, while nearby automatic weather station data were used describe regional climate.

McCarthy said progress to date has been ‘incredibly smooth’ due in no small part to the enthusiasm of everyone involved.

Wine Australia impresses at Chinese festival SOME of Australia’s best wine regions have been displayed at the 92nd China Food and Drinks Fair, held in Chengdu on 26–28 March 2015.

Wine Australia, in partnership with 13 exhibitors, showcased more than 100 fine wines from 40 brands and close to 20 wine regions to an estimated 100,000 festival attendees.

Willa Yang, Wine Australia’s regional manager said Chengdu’s China Food and Drinks Fair was one of the most important trade events on the calendar.

“We’ve had incredibly positive feedback from our exhibiting partners and visitors to our pavilion,” she said.

Throughout the three-day fair, Wine Australia’s certified A+ Australian Wine educators presented themed tasting classes. The classes were an opportunity

for visitors to the stand to learn more about the history, evolution and revolution of Australian wines as well as their diversity.

Wine Australia also hosted a dinner allowing exhibitors to network with local influencers including representatives from the wine media, trade, educators and Austrade.

“The fair has been a great opportunity to encourage the trade in China to learn even more about the quality and regional diversity of our wines and to understand that there’s really no such thing as a typical Aussie wine style,” Yang said.

China is Australia’s third largest export market. In 2014, total Australian wine exports increased by eight per cent to 40 million litres valued at $224 million.

A new geographical indications registration system will make it easier for consumers to discover New Zealand wines.

NZ wine industry to introduce geographical indicators THE NEW ZEALAND Government has announced it will pass legislation to set up a geographical indications registration system for wines and spirits which will operate in a similar way to trademark registration.

The Geographical Indications Registration Act will identify wines as originating in a specific region and the distinct qualities or reputation it has due to that. Examples of similar systems across the wine world include Champagne and Burgundy.

Philip Gregan, New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive officer said the move will equip the wine industry with the tools to protect its premium brands from misappropriation or misuse, as well as help secure market access in some regions.

“Governments could say unless there is a system of registration of geographic indications in New Zealand, then you can’t export wine to our market using those geographic indications on the label,” Gregan said.

“Now if that was to occur, that would stop us using Marlborough on the label or Central Otago or Waiheke Island and that would be a major, major issue for us.”

Gregan said the wine industry expected legislation for geographical indications to take effect next year “It’s a big step forward for the industry,” Gregan said.

Wine exports stand at $1.37 billion to the year January 2015, up 9%, propelling wine to New Zealand’s 6th biggest export good.

Aussie wines with screw caps challenge opinions AUSTRALIAN wines have challenged the views of leading wine experts at Italy’s biggest annual wine fair, Vinitaly in Verona this week, who say screw capped wines are inferior.

Tyson Stelzer, Australian wine writer and host, presented five mature flagship Australian red wines under both cork and screw cap in a blind tasting.

In a surprise twist, a panel of international wine professionals voted the screw-capped wines ahead of the corks.

“The result was ground-breaking for Italy, where screw caps remain controversial and until recently have been prohibited on the country’s top wines,” Stelzer said.

May 2015 – Issue 616

He said the tasting was significant for Australia, whose global reputation as a fine wine producer relies upon overcoming the misconception that screw caps are inferior.

Venice sommelier Annie MartinStefannato admitted, “we will have to change our mind-set”.

The wines presented showcased some of Australia’s most age worthy and respected reds, including Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz 2004, Cullen Diana Madeline Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2004 and 2005, Yalumba The Signature Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz 2003 and Brokenwood Rayner Shiraz 2001.

Panama wine expert Fabrizio Cezzi was impressed with the ageing of the www.winebiz.com.au

wines under screw cap.

“I did not expect that they would age so well – even better than under cork, it really surprised me.”

Argentina sommelier Ariel Morales agreed, saying the tasting demonstrated that red wines can mature reliably under screw cap.

“We have seen that the screw cap can be very important for the evolution of wine, not only for young wines, but for long ageing.”

Stelzer said no other country has mature reds of this calibre under screw cap.

“These wines have the potential to break down prejudices, as this tasting has demonstrated,” he said.

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7

movers & shakers TWE announce major changes TREASURY Wine Estates (TWE) announced plans to cut an unspecified number of jobs and put some of its Australian and US wineries up for sale in a series of cost cutting changes.

The move comes as part of a previously stated attempt to focus on a smaller number of brands and deliver $35 million in cost savings in fiscal 2015.

Treasury’s packaging and warehousing facility at Karadoc near Mildura will be shut, while its Australian Ryecroft, T’Gallant and Bailey’s will be put up for sale, along with California’s Asti winery.

Workloads from the huge Karadoc facility will be transferred to Wolf Blass winery in the Barossa by 2016, according to the company’s statement.

Expecting some job loss, the company said “the supply chain will be more efficient and it will include a small

reduction in headcount, but it’s not a big one.”

Treasury said the changes would generate savings of $50 million a year by 2020, with the benefits starting as early as next year.

Michael Clarke, TWE chief executive officer, said the changes are a tangible example of how TWE is executing a separate focus on its luxury and ‘masstige’ versus commercial portfolios globally.

“These are crucial steps designed to better optimise our supply chain network and extract significant cost savings over time.

“I am very pleased that we, at TWE, are now embedding a cost conscious culture. Not only are the cost reductions funding the 50 percent uplift in consumer marketing in fiscal 2015, the savings are also supporting actions

to improve the quality of TWE’s base earnings, while delivering profit growth for shareholders.”

Clarke announced a strategic transformation last year, which involved boosting investment in marketing, cutting costs and running its luxury brands division separate to its commercial brands.

“The changes announced today are significant ones for our business and demonstrate our commitment to delivering on the company’s strategic road map,” Clarke said.

“By continuing to reduce costs, and optimising the scale and efficiency of our supply chain networks in major production areas, Treasury is well placed to pursue growth opportunities¬ that exist for our wine brands in key markets around the world.”

Queensland winemaker is latest AWAC dux THE AUSTRALIAN Wine Research Institute (AWRI) have named Jessica Ferguson, Sirromet Wines assistant winemaker, as dux of the 35th Advanced Wine Assessment Course.

Having topped the class in statistical scores, verbal skills and group interaction, Ferguson has been offered a place as an associate judge for the 2015 Royal Queensland Wine Show (RQWS), to be held in June – a highly sought after position due to the very limited places available.

Ferguson, who was the first Queensland winemaker to be named dux of the course, said she found the process challenging, but very rewarding.

“With all my winemaking experience to date being at a single winery in a niche region (Granite Belt), I really welcomed the chance to develop and focus my tasting skills with less familiar styles,” she said.

Jessica Ferguson from Sirromet Wines - dux of the 35th Advanced Wine Assessment Course.

Presented by the AWRI, the course put participants through a gruelling

and intensive four-day program of wine sensory education and assessment.

Aiming to prepare potential new wine show judges and develop the sensory analysis capabilities and vocabulary of Australian wine professionals at an elite level, twelve leading wine show judges, journalists and winemakers contributed to the delivery of the course.

Con Simos, AWRI group manager, said the course attracted a diverse group of highly skilled participants who were able to benefit from each other’s experiences over the four-day course.

“Jessica demonstrated excellent tasting and discussion skills and deserves her opportunity in the national wine show system,” Simos said.

The next two AWACs will be held in July 2015. Course details are available at: http://www.awri.com.au/industry_ support/courses-seminars-workshops/ awac/

Bond joins Grant Burge Wines ACCOLADE Wines has appointed experienced wine industry executive, Jeff Bond, as of Grant Burge Wines general manager.

Bond's new role was created when Accolade acquired Grant Burge Wines earlier this year, not long after Casella wines purchased Peter Lehmann Wines and made his previous job redundant.

Michael East, Accolade Wines general manager Asia Pacific, said Bond’s recent experience as CEO at Peter Lehmann Wines, coupled with his marketing experience and understanding of the

8 Grapegrower & Winemaker

global drinks industry through time with Maxxium, made him the ideal person to lead Grant Burge Wines.

“Jeff’s experience and his engagement with the Barossa will really help ensure the brand stays true to its origins and to Grant and Helen Burge’s ambitions for the business,” East said.

Jeff Bond said Grant Burge Wines had done a lot of the heavy lifting to help make the Barossa name what it is today and it was an honour to be part of that continuing story.

“I wouldn’t say I’m a local – that www.winebiz.com.au

takes a lifetime,” Bond said. “But over the past five years I’ve got an in-depth understanding of the Barossa, the importance of its people and its special character as a cultural region – you’ve got to understand the history and its nuances to understand a brand like Grant Burge Wines.

“It’s a bit of dream job to go back to a business I know well and help drive the expansion in a way that builds on the Barossa story.”

Bond will started his Grant Burge Wines role in late April.

May 2015 – Issue 616

vintage 2015

Fast & Furious R

ecord breaking early vintages were seen across Australia this year, as many growers found themselves wrapped up by the Easter long weekend.

Dr Mardi Longbottom, Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) viticulturist, said the Australian wine industry needs to the changes, which are likely to become more common in the future.

“It’s more about managing the logistics around what’s happening with the intake,” she said. “We’ve had plenty of stories of white grapes and red grapes being harvested at the same time together which is highly unusual.

The Cowra Wine Show this year will New features for 2014 incorporate the Australian National Single Vineyard Wine Show

Schedule available online from 5 May 2014 Entry schedules to be emailed to producers on May 1 – also available from May 4 on www.cowrawineshow.com

Additional classes Submit entries: •

Early harvest has put pressure on equipment availability for grape picking, and some growers have been forced to leave grapes on the vines.

Online with secure payment

ies E• ntrScanned forms by email e s o l •C By mail June 5

“It’s been a trend we’ve been observing for the last 10 to 15 years,” Longbottom said. “We know it’s not climate alone, its climate along with reduced soil moisture but it’s also management in the vineyard.”

Entries close 6 June 2014

Although an early vintage caused chaos in some vineyards, the general consensus was positive among growers, with many claiming 2015 would bring the best vintage to date.

Post:

May 2015 – Issue 616

Email: cowrawineshow@bigpond.com PO Box 109, Cowra NSW 2794

Contact: cowrawineshow@bigpond.com

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www.cowrashow.com

Grapegrower & Winemaker

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vintage 2015 SOUTH AUSTRALIA

We even picked Grenache in March. Crazy.

A surprise visitor during vintage. CREDIT: Richard Hamilton

MOUNT LOFTY RANGES Adelaide Hills Despite the threat from January’s bushfires, Adelaide Hills grapegrowers and winemakers were celebrating, what they believed was the best vintage in 10 years.

Although some media reports have highlighted problems with smoke taint in the region, that problem has hit a very small part of the Adelaide Hills.

The devastating bushfire in the Sampson Flat Area burnt through 12,500 hectares; with a perimeter of 240km. 35 hectares of vineyard were damaged with seven vineyard owners directly affected. Richard Hamilton, Adelaide Hills Technical Committee chair said fortunately the fire occurred before vines had entered veraison, as once in veraison smoke taint becomes a major issue.

“A confidential grape and wine testing program was implemented with a panel of winemakers volunteering their time and resources,” Hamilton said. “Very few samples tested positive for smoke taint. However some grape purchasers were strongly risk averse and there was rejection of a significant amount of grapes from the areas surrounding the bushfire affected vineyards.”

Apart from the bushfires, Hamilton said the 2014/15 growing season had some unusual features as a result of unseasonal weather patterns.

“Fortunately, despite one of the driest growing seasons on record, the majority of the region has produced average to above average crops with high natural acid and excellent flavour profiles,” Hamilton said.

A combination of good soil moisture levels over winter and early recognition by the majority of growers of the dry spring conditions resulted in good sized canopies. Despite fruit potential being below average, well-developed canopies and warm weather resulted in good flowering and set across the region.

Hamilton said predictions for an exceptionally early start to harvest were tempered by an unseasonably mild January.

“Harvest began one week earlier than last year for the earliest varieties with the later varieties ripening considerably earlier than last season so vintage for the majority of the district was completed by the end of March,” Hamilton said. “This is up to a month earlier than past vintages.”

10 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Hamilton said winemakers were excited by wine quality with excellent acid balance and strongly developed flavours and wine colour.

“At this time the expectation is that wines from the 2015 vintage will be among the best that have been produced in this region for some time.”

Clare Valley After an almost ‘text book’ growing season, the 2015 Vintage has wrapped up in the Clare Valley with a very strong result across the board, according to Neil Paulett, Clare Valley Winemakers Incorporated (CVWI) chairman.

“Despite the fact that the vintage was almost certainly the earliest and shortest on record, both yields and quality have been above average in most circumstances,” Paulett said.

A strong winter rainfall provided a great kick-start to the growing season and apart from some isolated spring frost damage in October, Paulett said the season was ‘trouble free’.

“A very welcome 75mm of rain was received in the second week of January, and this certainly assisted in filling out berry size and maintaining good canopy and leaf condition which in turn really helped bring the vintage to a better-than-expected conclusion,” Paulett said.

Scorching weather set the vintage in motion two to three weeks ahead of time, with operations “cranking up in the first week of February,” according to Paulett.

“Despite the early start and the fact that the hot conditions brought most varieties into a similar ripening plane, the resultant juices and subsequent wines are showing fantastic varietal definition with good flavour, structure and excellent natural acid…all the hallmarks of a vintage with great longevity potential,” he said.

Yields were at least average with Riesling and Shiraz in particular proving to be most resilient in terms of productivity, Paulett said.

“The heat caused some minor decline in fruit condition in Cabernet and other late season red varieties, however this really has not had a significant impact on resultant wine quality,” he said. “Riesling quality generally appears to be on the top end of expectations with most wine producers really happy with what they have in their tanks.”

All in all, Paulett said 2015 has been another very successful

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May 2015 – Issue 616

vintage in the Clare Valley (the fourth in succession since the difficult 2011 Vintage) and one which may well go down as one of the best in the last decade.

BAROSSA The 2015 Barossa harvest period was ripe for success early on, according to Nicki Robins, Barossa Grape & Wine Association (BGWA) viticultural development officer. Robins said grower’s experienced 1.5 to 2.5 inches of rain in early January which set the vines up nicely for the ripening period.

“The majority of canopies held up through the warm days of February, with some extra irrigation going on to get the vines through the heat,” Robins said. “No heatwave conditions this year, which was a relief!”

According to local winemakers, Barossa and Eden Valley whites including Riesling, Pinot Gris, Semillon and Chardonnay have produced good yields with some of the best quality in years.

After undergoing significant changes in the past year, Peter Lehmann Wines have more than doubled production coming into the 2015 harvest season.

Ian Hongell, Peter Lehmann Wines chief winemaker, said the changes have revived the iconic winery and paved the way for a “good vintage”.

“It’s been fantastic. The place is alive again, we’re processing premium fruit from right across South Australia and we’re employing more people. It’s all good stuff. Everyone’s had to lift, but everyone wanted to. There has been some added complexity, but nothing we couldn’t handle,” Hongell said.

At the Barossa 2015 Declaration of Vintage, Louisa Rose, Baron and winemaker, said Barossa red varieties including Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache, Merlot and Mourvedre were showing “strong colours and rich flavours”.

Due to low yields of Barossa Shiraz over the past two years, the variety was in high demand in 2015. Robins said the Shiraz yield has been strong, with the exception of those vineyards hit by the October frosts, largely in Ebenezer.

“Overall, the Barossa winegrape yield should be higher this year than in 2013 and 2014, which is very good news for both Barossa growers and wineries,” Robins said. “Winemakers are telling us the quality of the 2015 Barossa vintage is outstanding.”

At the time of this report the majority of Eden Valley Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache were still yet to be picked.

May 2015 – Issue 616

FLEURIEU Langhorne Creek Having kicked off on January 28 this year, the 2015 vintage was well underway in the Langhorne Creek Wine Region while both growers and winemakers were pleased with the consistently mild weather.

At the time of the report white and sparkling grapes had been harvested while red grapes were still being picked.

A group of Langhorne Creek vignerons assessed a local block containing various types of Shiraz vines ahead of picking and were pleased with what they saw.

Lian Jaensch, Langhorne Creek Grape and Wine executive officer, said although the dry season had called for keen water management among grapegrowers, their hard work has been paying off.

“Perfect mild weather and cool nights has rewarded growers with steady fruit ripening and vibrant flavour development,” Jaensch said. “It is looking like a vintage with lower crop yields but disease pressure has been light and quality is looking very good.”

According to those that attended the vineyard walk, Shiraz was one to watch from Langhorne Creek this season.

McLaren Vale McLaren Vale have experienced one of the earliest vintages on record this year, with mild weather playing an important role for the region.

Paul Smith, Wirra Wirra Vineyards senior winemaker, said with only a handful of hot days, the weather allowed natural acids with low pH levels to develop.

“This can often mean wines with good ageing ability,” he said.

With yields falling just below average, Smith said the modest crops provided a strong engine to ripen the fruit.

“The vineyards had good canopies despite the dry season,” Smith said. “This has added to earlier ripening and earlier picking.”

Both Shiraz and Cabernet were looking “very strong”, according to Smith, with both varieties displaying “bright aromatics and lovely weight”.

“There were also some exceptional Grenache parcels,” Smith said. “2015 has been a successful vintage for us. It was early, in fact one of our earliest on record. I haven’t had an Easter off in

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vintage 2015 there was a hot period through February that really sped things up,” Reschke said. “That is of course unless your vines hadn’t finished veraison.”

Reschke said if the vines had not finished veraison, the hot weather slowed the process causing vines to ripen later than usual.

“This year, for us, it meant the vines were thrown into a far different ripening climate as the hot weather had finished and we were experiencing more mild weather, at an already cooler time of the year,” Reschke said.

As a result, Reschke said when many of his friends had finished secondary fermentation and were putting their feet up before pruning, he was still to harvest our Cabernet Sauvignon.

“The slower the ripening the more flavours are accumulated in the berry, this is why cool climate areas, such as Coonawarra, produce big flavours so I am grateful for the timing of the hot spell,” he said. “With tonnes low and ripening slow and mild, it looks like a great year for quality for us.”

LOWER MURRAY Riverland

Corrina Wright hand picking the South Block of Shiraz.

20 years, this could be my first!”

Corrina Wright, Oliver’s Taranga winemaker and director, said the speed of this year’s harvest was “unheard of”.

“We finished our 100 hectare within a month, and all over by the first week of March,” Wright said. “The ‘welcome to the region’ barbeque we normally put on as a community to welcome all of the backpackers and internationals working vintage in McLaren Vale, ended up being an ‘end of vintage’ barbeque! We even picked Grenache in March. Crazy.”

Wright said it appeared the overall tonnages in the region were down by 10 to 30 percent, slightly lower or around par with the low cropping 2014 vintage.

“General word on the street is that supplementary irrigation this year was vital, and was used to record levels,” she said.

Both red and white varieties were looking solid, according to Wright, who said the biggest challenge of the vintage had been perfecting the balance between sugar and tannin ripeness.

“Fitting that in with the logistics of an extremely compressed vintage region-wide was very challenging,” Wright said.

LIMESTONE COAST Coonawarra Following a trend in South Australia, several Coonawarra wineries commenced the 2015 vintage much earlier than in previous years, and in some instances, the earliest ever.

Wayne Stehbens, Katnook Estate senior winemaker, said his team started harvesting Pinot Noir in the first week of February, which was their earliest recorded start to a season ever.

“Typically we harvest Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes for sparkling wines at lower Baumes. Historically it’s been late February, so to be picking in early February is extraordinarily early,” Stehbens said.

Burke Reschke, Reschke Wines managing director, said although the 2015 vintage had been one of the earliest for most of the state, he was yet to harvest his Cabernet Sauvignon.

“Although being a relatively mild summer (good for ripening)

12 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Despite humid and rainy weather while grapes were ripening, yield across the Riverland were on track to hit 400,000 tonnes, 30,000 tonnes less than last year’s crush.

Riverland wine grape growers are facing another year of low price offers from wineries, according to industry body Riverland Wine.

Despite some humid and rainy weather while grapes were ripening, yields across the region are on track to hit around 400,000 tonnes, 30,000 tonnes less than last year’s crush.

Wineries that have signed on to a voluntary code of conduct must give grape growers an indication of the price they could offer for each variety.

Riverland Wine executive officer Chris Byrne said those offers have been discouraging this vintage, although he is hopeful rumours that chardonnay prices could be as low as $180 a tonne will not eventuate.

“The recent upswing in demand for chardonnay suggest that some of the rumours of very low prices will be put to rest.

“We’ve been consistently hearing prices around $235 a tonne in the past week, because some of the wineries are getting worried about securing the fruit.”

Barmera grape grower Ashley Chabrel would like those prices to eventuate.

“There’s probably no parts of the Riverland wine industry that like things the way they are at the moment,” he said.

“But having said that, there’s some varieties like chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc that are seeing a jump in demand this year.”

Even if there’s an upswing in those prices this year, the region continues to grapple with the long run decline of the industry, which has seen the number of growers decline from around 1,350 at the industry’s peak in the early 2000s to 1,050 today, according to Riverland Wine.

It’s seen wide ranging structural reform in the industry, with many growers aiming to achieve better economies of scale in the businesses, and to grow higher quality ‘fit for purpose’ grapes.

Byrne said when the conditions in the already over-supplied global wine industry improved, the reforms undertaken in the Riverland would place it in a good position to profit.

“The impact of the last few years has been the levelling out of the industry. A number of growers have left, but those who have remained are determined to stay for the long haul.

“We must bear in mind what this industry is going through is symptomatic of what’s happening globally.”

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May 2015 – Issue 616

IS YOUR RIESLING UP TO THE CHALLENGE?

NEW SOUTH WALES

16

You can almost hear Murray Tyrrell shouting from the grave – ‘Vintage of the Century!’

THE HYATT HOTEL CANBERRA AND ALBERT HALL CANBERRA

12-17 OCTOBER 2015 A COMPETITION DEDICATED TO RIESLING WINES TO SHOWCASE THE WONDERS OF THE RIESLING VARIETY The Canberra International Riesling Challenge is a unique opportunity for Riesling producers to showcase their product. The Challenge has become an internationally recognised wine show, and is the largest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

The 16th Canberra International Riesling Challenge attracts wines from Riesling producing countries around the world.

Colmar Estate on the first day of vintage – picking chardonnay grapes for sparkling wine. CREDIT: Bill Shrapnel

Judging is conducted on a regional basis which highlights the individual characteristics unique to each wines location in the world.

Ken Helm AM, Chairman Canberra International Riesling Challenge

BIG RIVERS Riverina The Riverina region experienced a relatively mild growing season, with only one period of higher temperatures but no heatwave activity to cause any concern with ripening, according to Kristy Bartrop, Riverina Wine Grapes Marketing Board industry development officer.

Fruit matured slowly which resulted in particularly good flavour development.

Bartrop said the season had minimal damage or loss as a result of natural disaster or disease pressures which they had experienced every year for the past few years.

“Some operators were unlucky to be hit by a hail storm that managed to damage a small part of our region, while others contended with botrytis risks with an unusually humid January,” Bartrop said. “This year looks to be a bumper crop eclipsing the record set in 2009 of 307,000 tonnes.”

Bartrop said the vintage could get as high as 320,000 tonnes, even though 2014 saw more than 1000ha of vineyard removed from the region.

“Many of the vineyards that suffered from frost in 2014 produced heavy crops which contributed to our ample crop,” she said. “While other commodities would be rejoicing this achievement, the wine industry will not.

“As all in the industry are aware, the low returns for vineyard operators continues to be a concern with many vineyard operators contemplating alternatives for their farming future.”

SO IF YOU THINK IT IS, THEN ENTER. CALENDAR OF EVENTS SEMINAR ON RIESLING EXCELLENCE HOSTED BY CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY

Friday 16 October 2015 Hyatt Hotel Canberra

RIESLING MASTER CLASS Friday 16 October 2015 Hyatt Hotel Canberra

EXHIBITORS AND CONSUMER TASTING Saturday 17 October 2015 Albert Hall Canberra

Bookings for the Seminar and Master Class are essential as spaces are limited.

For more information, visit www.rieslingchallenge.com or email info@rieslingchallenge.com

Murray Darling The Murray Darling has faced some challenges this season.

The region was hit by a severe tornado in November, estimated to have caused over $6 million damage to winegrapes, and saw some growers lose their entire crop.

The 2015 harvest kicked off on January 7, according to Zilzie Wines and produced good quality all around the region.

All signs were pointing to a recovery in the region until May 2015 – Issue 616

KEY DATES ENTRIES OPEN 1 JUNE www.rieslingchallenge.com ENTRIES CLOSE 31 JULY | JUDGING 13-15 OCTOBER WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT THE AWARDS PRESENTATION

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ON 16 OCTOBER 2015 Grapegrower & Winemaker

13

vintage 2015 Maher said growers in the region were predicting the 2015 vintage could be the quintessential Australian “cracker”!

Rod Kempe, chief winemaker for one of the Hunter Valley’s iconic vineyards - Lakes Folly, said for such a tough year his Cabernet vines were absolutely beaming.

“Bring on the sunshine,” Kempe said.

“After a roller coaster ride since early December, February sunshine, and a good forecast for the next week, you can almost hear Murray Tyrrell shouting from the grave – ‘Vintage of the Century!’ said Maher. “Well not quite Mr Tyrrell, but from the jaws of despair, the Hunter Valley looks like securing a very, very good vintage.”

CENTRAL RANGES Mudgee

Red wine filtration at Windowrie. CREDIT: Petrina O’Dea at Windowrie.

Mike Stone from Murray Valley Wine Growers announced local growers had received the worst prices in nearly a decade.

Stone said unsustainable prices from wine companies would see those who had just been hanging on leave the industry this year.

“Wine grape prices must improve in 2016 or the industry in this region will continue to shrink,” he said.

Stone said the region lost more than 60 growers and almost 800 hectares last year, which translates to 20,000 tonnes.

“And we would expect based on the prices this year for that trend to continue.”

Stone said things could not get much worse for wine grape growers at the moment.

“Prices are probably the worst in seven years, and apart from a spike in 2008, they are the worst they’ve been in about 10 years,” he said.

Growers with uncontracted fruit have been offered as low as $180 per tonne for red varieties, when indicative prices earlier in the season showed potential of about $330 per tonne.

“It’s just unsustainable,” Stone said. “Most of the prices for grapes this year have not covered the cost of production, and unfortunately that was the case last year.

“Anecdotally, a number of growers I have spoken to reckon this year is going to be their last.”

Stone said he hoped 2016 would see an improvement in prices.

HUNTER After a wet start to the season, the 2015 Hunter Valley vintage outlook was bleak. Gus Maher, Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association general manager, said dire forecasts were whispered among growers as rain washed away their hopes of a successful harvest.

“Then the rain stopped,” said Maher. “And then the sun came out.”

The region’s luck turned around in late January. Moderate temperatures, matched with strong breezes helped to dry out tightly bunched fruit and eliminated the risk of what seemed inevitable disease.

“Day after day, it has continued – consistent dry warmth, ripening that precious fruit and bringing smiles and positive forecasts back amongst the winemaking fraternity,” Maher said.

“Even better, there was talk of wonderfully ripe chardonnay fruit, and reds that have patiently waited out the rains and again started their ripening process.”

14 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Mudgee experienced a text-book vintage, according to David Lowe, winemaker, viticulturist and owner of Lowe Wines.

“A great vintage is where the season and environment are so predictable that a winemaker can call the shots with complete confidence,” Lowe said. “2015 in Mudgee is one of those years.”

With both white and red grapes maturing evenly, albeit slightly earlier than normal, Lowe said there was a relaxed feel to the harvest.

“The weather held out and the succession of maturities for each variety was ‘text book’, so logistically there was no need to rush,” he said.

Jacob Stein, Viticulturist and winemaker for Robert Stein Winery, said Mudgee had one of the best growing season conditions in recent memory, with average rainfall and slightly above average temperatures contributing to excellent quality fruit.

Stein said the harvest started two to three weeks earlier than normal, with aromatic white varietals being harvested in the end of January.

“There was very minimal rainfall during the harvest allowed ideal conditions and fruit was picked at ideal ripeness and great flavour,” Stein said. “It is very hard to pick a star variety, with all varieties performing very well, however Riesling, Italian and Spanish varietals, as well as Shiraz are exceptional.”

Stein said Cabernet Sauvignon was the only variety to possibly suffer from the drier and warmer conditions.

“This is a benchmark vintage we will be talking about in the future,” he said.

Cowra The 2015 vintage has been particularly promising in the Cowra region according to Jason O’Dea, Windowrie general manager and viticulturist.

Yields were somewhat lower than average due to the frost in 2014, however the quality of the fruit was some of the best the region has seen in the past 10 years.

“The growing season was optimal with short burst of rain during the early spring months and exceptionally warm days during the latter part of the season with cool crisp evenings, great for the flavour development on the vine,” O’Dea said.

Vintage started reasonably early in Cowra, harvesting sparkling base on Australia Day. “It was as we were able to take time to assess and discuss the flavours as they were developing in the vineyard, without the pressure or stress of inclement weather,” O’Dea said. “It was all about preserving the flavours from the vineyard, complementing them with various winemaking techniques, and creating a sense of place from the vineyard and the region.”

Windowrie increased its organic production this year which O’Dea described as “very exciting”. “Many of the vineyards that have been in conversion are this year certified and again, it was a great season for growing organic fruit,” he said “This year we

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May 2015 – Issue 616

harvested the first of our organic Sauvignon Blanc which was incredibly fragrant with tropical notes and beautiful acidity due to the cooler, crisp evenings.”

Overall, O’Dea said the harvest period was rewarding and fast.

“It’s not often we finish vintage before the Easter weekend so it was really enjoyable to gather with family and friends, relax and thank “Bacchus” for a great 2015 Vintage.”

Orange Make hay while the sun shines! Appropriate words as the regions vignerons were launched into vintage for another year. Not only winegrapes but an incredible crop of stone fruits, berries and apples continues to be harvested across the tablelands of the Orange region, according to David Crawley, Orange Region Vignerons Association president.

“As the first bunches came off the vines, the harvest was looking superb,” Crawley said. “The wine grape growers were excited by the prospect of high quality wines being produced from the region for 2015.”

Crawley said a cold winter with a number of snow falls quickly transformed into a warm and dry spring and had the regions vines in a canter before Christmas. Since then the season has slowed down, with a mild summer of warm days and cool nights.

“January saw some much needed but above average rainfall which enabled good canopy growth,” he said. “There were some isolated thunder and hailstorms where a few vignerons experienced some quite severe damage in their vineyards but the majority of growers escaped unscathed.”

Many of the vineyards in Orange had picked their sparkling bases and most of their aromatic varieties by the end of

February. For those vineyards at higher elevations, the season has been perfect, with sparkling base picked mid-February.

For some of the vineyards on the lower slopes, they were well and truly into their season at the time of the report with Shiraz being harvested in mid-March.

Crawley said reports from some of the regions vignerons were describing clean and precise fruit with great flavours.

Marty Gransden, Cumulus Wines vineyard manager, said he was impressed with the quality this year.

“I am thinking that the winemakers will be really happy this season,” Gransden said.

Philip Shaw, from Philip Shaw Wines said he was “delighted” with how the 2015 vintage was going.

“We were concerned about the rain we received from Christmas to late January but the last three weeks have been excellent and our vineyard is looking outstanding with wonderful fruit flavours and Pinot Noir showing amazing colour,” Shaw said.

Clayton Kiely, from Tamburlaine’s, said the reds were showing excellent colour and were due to be picked before the whites this season.

“At present, after 20 years of growing winegrapes, this season is shaping up as the best quality so far,” Kiely said.

NORTHERN SLOPES New England The 2015 vintage promises to be one of the best in recent times in the New England region, according to Sam Watson from the New England Wine Industry Association.

“While the region is one of the largest in the country and conditions vary greatly, generally the vintage was kind and the fruit from the vintage is looking sensational,” Watson said.

Returning to Adelaide July 2015 WISA presents

The National Wine Industry Supplier Trade Show Everything from the Vine to the Glass

Tuesday July 14 to Thurs July 16, 2015

Goyder Pavilion, Adelaide Showground, SA The Australian wine industry’s premier tradeshow will return to Adelaide in a dynamic new format in 2015. WISA will deliver a different experience, targeting those in the industry with a direct operational focus. The event will showcase leading industry suppliers and be complimented with seminars, workshops, social and networking events.

For further details contact Kym Jones Exhibitions (Exhibition Manager) P: 08 8177 1499 E: kym@kjex.com.au www.winetechaustralia.com.au or Matthew Moate (WISA Executive Officer) P: 0409 783 221 E: eo@wisa.org.au

May 2015 – Issue 616

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

15

vintage 2015 In the North of the region, around Tenterfield, conditions early in the growing made for a difficult start to the season.

Limited rain throughout the spring forced growers to irrigate, however in late November, the rain arrived, and plenty of it over the next month and a half.

Throughout the remainder of the region around the towns of Inverell, Glen Innes, Armidale and Tamworth, rain was scattered through veraison.

“Some experienced plenty of rain ensuring great fruit growth, while others in the centre of the region had a dry spell,” Watson said. “More scattered showers through the picking season mixed in with some warm temperatures made harvest tricky in places, but most vineyards were able to get fruit off the vines in good time ensuring the fruit quality remained.”

Watson said yields throughout the region varied and all hinged on the early spring rain and irrigation. While botrytis was evident throughout the vintage, ensuring pressure on the harvest, the majority of vignerons were able to manage this effectively through handpicking and removal of diseased grapes.

“Plenty of heroes will come from the 2015 Vintage. Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon Blanc are all looking good, with plenty of Pinot Noir throughout the region also looking promising,” Watson said.

SOUTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES Canberra District Winemakers in Canberra have tipped 2015 as “the best vintage ever” after an early beginning.

The season peaked in late March and by the end of the month only a rump of cooler, higher vineyards, late-ripening varieties and grapes destined for dessert wines remained to be picked.

Late on Saturday, March 21, Ken Helm, Murrumbateman winemaker rang the old cellar-door bell, signalling the end of the vintage.

“It’s the earliest vintage in my 39 years here. It’s also our biggest crush, and the winery’s full,” he said.

Helm said 2015 “has outdone even 2013”, ticking all the right boxes across all varieties.

“If we get a better vintage than this, I’ll be very, very surprised. It’s a cracker,” Helm said.

We are away from an impending lunar eclipse and the moon’s influence is minimal. We see that as a way of ensuring that we have good concentration in the fruit.

Like other winemakers across Australia, Helm struggled to process an unending stream of fruit.

“Our biggest problem was tanks,” he said.

At Lerida Estate on Lake George, Jim Lumbers said rain and warm weather in January set up conditions for bunch rot.

“But the rain stopped and the weather slowly got sunnier and sunnier. Despite forecasts of rain, the weather remained clear,” he said.

Despite good yields and high fruit quality, the vintage became chaotic when everything ripened at once.

“We’ve had very late nights, our capacity has been stretched but coping. We’ve been picking and processing every day with no breaks,” he said.

While most winemakers were watching the weather to determine their harvest, Dr Dave Carpenter, Lark Hill winemaker, looked to the skies.

Carpenter, who has been operating the north-eastern winery for over two decades, has adapted biodynamic agricultural practices that relies on the moon’s cycle to determine harvesting schedules.

In biodynamic winemaking, the lunar cycle outlines four, three-day periods called flower day, fruit day, root day and leaf day.

Carpenter said grape picking to make vignoles, a white wine, was to be conducted in the middle of the fruit day period just a few days prior to a blood moon lunar eclipse.

“It is a full on style so fruit character is of the essence,” Carpenter said. “We are at about a three quarter moon, so we are well away from unwelcome influences from a full moon.

“We are away from an impending lunar eclipse and the moon’s influence is minimal. We see that as a way of ensuring that we have good concentration in the fruit.”

QUEENSLAND Granite Belt Sirromet Wines began its 2015 vintage in early February, with the first crush being Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to be used for premium sparkling base, according to Adam Chapman, Sirromet chief winemaker.

Verdelho, Pinot Gris, Viognier and Chardonnay white varietals had been harvested in the following weeks, while the red fruit had only just began at the time of the report with Petit Verdot for the red sparkling base in the crusher.

Chapman said this year had produced a good level of complex acidities, flavours and regional characteristics which were positive signs for the winery.

“In comparison to McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley, who have already completed a very early vintage this year, we will continue to take in Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet right up until Easter, demonstrating that elevation is more significant than latitude for determining cooler-climate ripening conditions in Australia,” Chapman said.

With the Granite Belt spreading across 50 kilometres of some of Australia’s oldest soils and rock formations, Chapman said

16 Grapegrower & Winemaker

the region has distinct characters that he expected to shine through this vintage.

“We have pristine, floral, zesty white wines and soft, elegant and spicy red wines due to the location, soil, climate and vine balance,” he said.

At 820m of elevation, Sirromet’s vineyards were planted in decomposed granite with deep clay subsoils, allowing the fruit to gain great regional flavours unique to this part of the world.

“With soil elevation being one of the most important features of world viticulture, it is nice to know that the Granite Belt will be at least 8°C cooler than Brisbane on any given day; this has to do with the rule that for every 1000ft increase in altitude there is a drop of 3°C in temperature.” Chapman said. “The average elevation of 2300ft within the Granite Belt helps dramatically with flavour development due to the cool of the late afternoon and cold nights, just like in Mendoza in Argentina, where some vineyards are grown at elevations in excess of 1700m.”

Chapman said Sirromet expected to crush a total of 500 tonnes of fruit from the 2015 vintage.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

WESTERN AUSTRALIA GREATER PERTH Swan District The Swan Valley had an exceptionally good vintage 2015, according to Duncan Harris of the Swan Valley and Regional Winemakers Association.

Warm spring weather conditions had vignerons worried the 2015 vintage may start in 2014, however a cool December brought the region above average, even-ripening yields.

Harris said some growers reported an increased yield on 2014, while others achieved targets with bunch thinning.

With the harvest commencing in the second week of January and running through to the first week of April, Harris predicted the tonnage to grow to 5000 tonne.

“We are pleased that the Swan Valley wine connoisseur is going to enjoy the benevolent conditions this vintage with grapes of intense flavour,” Harris said.

Dry days in December and January and 30mm of rain in February meant fruit has been of a high standard with normal pH. By March, both red and white varieties were off the vine.

“There was no rainfall in December and January which has meant disease has been nonexistent,” Harris said. “Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and our regions Verdelho are of good quality”.

Harris said good soil moisture levels from the February rain meant the reds will be of exceptional quality.

“The forecast of a warm autumn with cool nights promises the premium in that style,” Harris said.

Some dry whites were already in the bottle, while Shiraz, Cabernet, and Malbec were showing deep colour and flavour intensity with fine ripe tannins.

“We’ve have fantastic past vintages so we’re all feeling fairly fortunate in Western Australia’s Swan Valley,” Harris said.

SOUTH WEST AUSTRALIA Geographe In the Geographe region, vintage commenced earlier than usual with most white varieties and some early ripening red varieties in harvest at the time of the report. After a cool spring, many growers in the area expected vines to slow down, but two weeks of consistently hot weather sped the process up leading to the earliest vintage in recent history. A statement from the Geographe Wine Industry association said wineries were picking seven to 10 days ahead of their normal harvest schedule. Yields for white varieties appeared to be lower than average due to low bunch weights. However, winemakers were saying fruit quality was very good as ripening has progressed evenly through the warm, and particularly dry, summer. Bird

May 2015 – Issue 616

What a vintage 2015 has been so far, you name it we’ve had it pressure, together with higher than normal humidity and late season powdery mildew, had caused some challenges this vintage.

Margaret River Margaret River’s 2015 white wine vintage has been completed with many wine producers reporting their earliest ever finish, some as early as the first week in March.

Stuart Watson, Margaret River Wine Association president, said fruit quality was looking very good.

“Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon displays intense varietal characteristics such as crisp natural acidity on the palate accompanied by a citrus to lemon and lime fruit aromas on the nose,” Watson said. “Chardonnay also has a great length to its acidity with quite soft line of phenolics, while profile flavours cover the spectrum from early summer peach to nectarine as well as a fine contour of citrus.”

Quality was looking high, although Watson said yields were down across the board especially in Chardonnay and Semillon.

“This has been brought about by inclement weather at flowering during October and November, including cold night time temperatures and rainfall,” Watson said. “Thereafter berry development was hampered by wet and very windy conditions in spring and early summer.”

Since early March, Watson said an autumn weather pattern came into being and with the passing Cyclone Olwyn, the region experienced some rain with cooler night time temperatures.

“This has effectively extended the ripening period for red wine varieties quite nicely giving them more ‘hang time’ to enhance fruit development flavour profiles with softer tannin levels arising as a consequence.”

Pemberton and Manjimup The vintage in Pemberton and Manjimup had it all this year, according to Mark Aitken, Woodgate Wines winemaker.

“What a vintage 2015 has been so far, you name it we’ve had it,” Aitken said.

Several hailstorms teamed with a devastating fire and unusual wildlife behaviour had dire consequences for some vineyards in the Frankland area.

“It started with hail storms last spring several vineyards

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

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vintage 2015 in the Frankland area got wiped out by the hail,” Aitken said.

“Then we had the Northcliffe fire, many vineyards in the Pemberton and Manjimup areas lost some or all of their fruit to smoke damage and finally if you survived all of that it has been the worst year for birds we have experienced for many years.”

Despite the circumstances, Aitken said the weather had generally been fantastic for ripening and the parcels of fruit that have survived should be great.

“Right now we are halfway through vintage, all of the whites except Viognier have been harvested, and all of the reds except Pinot noir are still waiting to come in.”

At the time of the report, Di Miller, Bellarmine Wines winemaker and operations manager, said they were halfway through harvesting.

“All the whites are in, as well as the Pinot Noir,” Miller said. “Ripening has slowed down quite a bit as the nights have cooled, which is great for flavour development.”

GREAT SOUTHERN Mount Barker Overall, Mount Barker’s vintage was very predictable, according to Kim Tyrer, Mount Barker Wine Producers president and Galafrey Wines chief executive officer.

While good quality wines were produced, falling yields continued to put pressure on prices and availability.

“Most vineyards in the WA reported low tonnages so we weren’t alone,” Tyrer said. “As dry years continue to produce lower yields I think it will be more difficult for WA wineries to produce wines under the $20 mark.”

Early rains provided an optimistic start to the vintage, however Tyrer said the region was surprised by poor weather during flowering followed by a dry summer which dramatically effected yields with certain varieties like Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

“Riesling and Shiraz continue to be stellar performers with normal yields and excellent quality,” Tyrer said. “A solid vintage.”

VICTORIA WESTERN VICTORIA Grampians

PORT PHILLIP Yarra Valley

The Grampians saw blue skies and sunshine in the lead up to the vintage, with some lovely top up rains that refreshed the vines, according to Manon Houg from Mount Langi Ghiran and Grampians Wine spokesperson.

“It was a pleasant summer without the heat of previous years,” Houg said. “The vintage was surprisingly early given the mild summer.”

Houg said the vines held on to their leaves well and the fruit ripened clearly with exceptional flavours.

“I think we are talking about a 10/10 vintage for Reds and 9/10 for whites, as flavours and pH’s are in balance and conditions dry,” she said. “It feels like 1990 again, a patient hurry with little or no bird attack.”

After a fantastic winter in terms of rain and temperatures in the Yarra Valley, the weather improved for a timely budburst which rolled into a warm spring that was perfect for flowering.

Julian Grounds, Innocent Bystander senior winemaker, said the vineyards were full of tightly packed bunches ahead of the harvest season.

“We’re thrilled because bunches like this can put you on the knife edge for disease risk, but we’ve come through spring with berries that have high acid, great colour and increased flavour development,” Grounds said. “The other benefit of tight bunches is less surface area exposure and far less risk of berry sunburn.”

There was a cool kick at the end of summer that slowed ripening to perfectly balance physiological and sugar ripeness,

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www.winebiz.com.au

May 2015 – Issue 616

far preferable to sugar ripeness occurring first. “One of the best things about Innocent Bystander is the excellent relationship between the winery and vineyards,” Grounds said. “Steve and I feel confident that they’re always going to be picking fruit at its very best, and we trust our Head Viticulturist Stuart Marshall implicitly to provide us with exceptional fruit.

“I am particularly excited about our Tarraford Syrah. Cool climate Syrah is a pet love of mine and I’m looking forward to the chance to work with lots of whole bunch winemaking at a site that just soaks it up.”

Grounds said he was looking forward to using a new Oscillys Destemmer which could produce almost 100 per cent whole berry ferments out of Pinot Noir and Syrah.

A notion which, as Julian put it: “Makes me salivate”.

Mornington Peninsula

Innocent Bystander head winemaker Steve Flamsteed has his hands full during vintage. CREDIT: Caitlin May

May 2015 – Issue 616

Mornington Peninsula’s first grapes of the season were handpicked off the vine at Yabby Lake Vineyard in February, according to the vineyard’s group viticulturist, Keith Harris.

Harris said Yabby Lake usually kicked off the harvest for the Mornington Peninsula due to the location of the vineyard.

“We’re a little further north and we get slightly warmer temperatures here so the grapes are ready sooner,” he said.

Harris said the harvest lasted three weeks, with pickers covering Pinot Gris and Chardonnay before moving on to the region’s flagship Pinot Noir variety.

The results of the 2015 harvest will be closely watched by wine aficionados, with Yabby Lake’s 2013 Block 2 Pinot Noir taking out six trophies at the Sydney Royal Wine Show earlier in the year.

Tom Carson, Yabby Creek winemaker and general manager said the winery was starting to identify some special sites for Pinot Noir.

www.winebiz.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

19

vintage 2015

It makes me salivate “As a winegrower and maker, it’s incredibly exciting to see the evolution of the variety in this country,” he said. “There is such a terrific breadth of characterful wines coming through.”

Central Victoria Heathcote Phil Meehan, Heathcote Winegrowers’ Association president, said local vineyards were monitoring the weather daily ahead of a start on harvesting Shiraz before signs of heat stress appeared in the “Our Shiraz vines look to have produced well again, helped by generally good conditions over spring and a summer climate this year that has allowed fruit on the vines to develop nicely,” Meehan said.

A week of warmer weather accelerated the final stages of maturity in the variety with most vineyards anticipating that they may have vintage in full swing within the next week.

“As our vines age, the quality of our already highlyacclaimed Shiraz releases continues to grow. The combination of vine maturity and climate has our members well placed to step up another notch in 2015.”

Tracie Young from Silver Spoon Estate said she was expecting an excellent vintage this year, with far higher yields than previous seasons.

“We’ve really worked very hard on our the vineyards over the winter months, changing what we normally do, nurturing the soil more, and strengthening the vines with harsher pruning techniques,” Young said. “The rewards will be in the higher quality of fruit and bigger bunches of grapes.”

Bruce Tyrrell from Tyrrell’s Wines said the vintage was over in the blink of an eye.

“Conditions in Heathcote mirrored last year, with some winter rain and a hot, dry summer,” Tyrrell said. “The last of this year’s fruit was delivered and all of it is just around 14 per cent alcohol, has loads of colour and loads of flavour.”

Goulburn Valley In yet another affirmation of the climate change theorists, the 2015 harvest at Goulburn Valley commenced earlier than any vintage that preceded it.

The harvest officially launched into action on 6 February

with both white and red varieties ripening with remarkable synchronicity, according to Travis Clydesdale, Mitchelton winemaker.

As oppose to the extreme heat of past years, it was a relatively mild summer which resulted in the early ripening of both red and white varieties.

“It’s the mild conditions with efficient ripening that we prefer to be presented with in the lead up to harvest,” Clydesdale said.

Early impressions suggested Riesling would again be a highlight for the season with delightful floral aromatics of lime and spring flowers backed by mouth-watering acid, according to Clydesdale.

“Although Shiraz is invariably the star of every vintage at Mitchelton, it would seem that Cabernet Sauvignon is rallying across the region and has mounted a late charge for the title of vintage champion,” he said. “We’ve seen some spectacular parcels of Cabernet coming through the winery over the last few weeks and expect that final quality will be outstanding.”

Clydesdale said although Goulburn Valley was not noted as a Cabernet Sauvignon region, the variety has performed exceptionally well over the years and has been the core element of some of the best wines to come out of Nagambie Lakes.

“Could the tide be turning? Only time will tell…”

North East Victoria Rutherglen The 2015 vintage has been great for Rutherglen producers.

A hallmark of the season has been consistent quality across all varieties, high quality and good cropping levels. Overall, the season has been relatively mild and kind to growers, with little disease pressure and a long ripening window.

Vintage kicked off in Rutherglen on January 23 - one of the earliest recorded starts. The whites were showing good varietal definition and balanced acidity while the reds had good colour and fruit concentration. Fortified winemakers enjoyed near perfect end-of-season conditions enabling extended ripening conditions for high concentration of flavours.

One Rutherglen vigneron declared it to be “the best vintage in the fifteen years I have been working this block”. This sentiment will be echoed by others in the coming months.

Andrew and Carol Sutherland Smith from Warrabilla Wines, said it had been a very interesting lead up to vintage with a mixed range of hot and cold days along with strong winds, rain and a bit of hail.

“Tonnages look pretty good at this stage and we are estimating a 200 ton crush this vintage,” they said.

TASMANIA According to Rafe Nottage, from Tasmania’s Bream Creek Vineyard, the vintage 2015 on 20 March when Chardonnay was picked from Block D for their Cuvee sparkling.

“Our cool site not only produces fabulous grape flavours but also allows the retention of natural acid which is vital for the production of premium sparkling wine,” Nottage said. While crop yields were predicted to remain modest, Nottage said the winery was very excited by the quality of the crop, especially Pinot Noir.

Stuart Bryce, Providence vineyard owner, said it was not a memorable vintage in terms of yield.

“The season went pear-shaped during the first week of December 2014 when two attempts to spray for powdery mildew resulted in the spray being washed off by rain before it had a chance to set,” Bryce said. “The third attempt was made during

20 Grapegrower & Winemaker

heavy winds, and I suspect that a vineyard some 200 kilometres south was successfully covered.”

Although he spent the next two months applying eradicants, Bryce said it had little effect.

“The net result was that Providence lost all the Pinot Noir crop and nearly all the Chardonnay. Riesling, which was later in development avoided the debacle and returned a good crop in terms of both yield and quality.”

On Saturday 11 April, ably assisted in the vineyard by staff, students and parents from the Launceston Grammar Music School (for, I think, the 14th time) Bryce picked the remnants.

“Thanks goes to the Music School, captained by the head of Music, Sherryn Hepher, as well as our older hands, Victor and Les and inside with the catering, Kay and Elizabeth.”

www.winebiz.com.au

May 2015 – Issue 616

my view Political correctness and wine advertising Mitchell Taylor, Taylors Wines third-generation managing director, penned this opinion piece about the rejection of the winery’s latest ad campaign. Taylor said it was “political correctness and the nanny state gone too far”. This piece was first published by Mumbrella (mumbrella.com.au) and has been used with permission of the author.

IT SEEMS a pretty good tagline for life, a nice message to get up and out and drink from life’s cup (responsibly of course). But I’m afraid this seemingly innocuous tagline, accompanying some beautiful imagery shot by one of the nation’s finest photographers, is simply too shocking, too provocative, too dangerous for your eyes.

You see the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code has rejected the prevetting application from my family wine business to run this line anywhere.

The line, ‘Life, Drink It In’, which would have accompanied an ad for a $200 bottle of wine, launched as The Pioneer as a tribute to my dad, is somehow not appropriate for… well, we’re not sure what for …we wouldn’t mind a logical explanation.

Taylors is a family business that has been making and marketing wines for almost 50 years. We have long supported responsible drinking, and support every code and regulation of the industry and government.

I have personally chaired the Alcohol Beverages Australia (formerly NABIC) and also sat as the chairman of the Australia’s First Families of Wine.

We are far from radical, we are far from agitators. To suggest that this ad might promote irresponsible drinking is palpably absurd. We simply have no other words for it.

We showed ABAC the original concepts for the ad, having as always considered the issue of responsible drinking. In our wildest dreams we saw no possible objection.

When the first piece of artwork was rejected we shook our collective heads but acted in accordance with protocol by lodging a robust defence of why our ad was appropriate to all aspects of the code and at the same time showcasing ads from large multinational companies we thought were not.

And for a second time, for reasons we cannot seriously comprehend, we were rejected again. It seems the evil word is ‘drink’ but we can find many ads where the word drink is front and centre. And seriously how patronising are we going to become of our consumer?

In terms of the process for the ABAC review, it’s pretty straightforward. We May 2015 – Issue 616

CONFUSED: Mitchell Taylor doesn’t understand why the Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code rejected a Taylors Wine ad tagline.

We went through the normal appeals process, providing examples of similar advertising with similar tag lines while providing an argument as to why our tagline should be approved – but that was also knocked back. submit a creative mock-up to the ABAC prior to developing the materials. If they approve of the creative, we can finalise the materials and our media agency selects where they will be placed. In this instance, ABAC came back with their disapproval regarding our tagline.

We went through the normal appeals process, providing examples of similar advertising with similar tag lines while providing an argument as to why our tagline should be approved – but that was also knocked back.

We sell a drink, an expensive delicious drink that we fully intend to be savoured with terrific food and great friends. I believe this is political correctness and www.winebiz.com.au

the nanny state gone too far. This is an ad for a beautiful wine proudly made by an Australian family winery. What has life in Australia become if we cannot ‘drink it in’ and enjoy the experiences of this great country?

We will go back to the drawing board and come up with an alternative, less offensive tag-line. We will abide by the code, no matter how ludicrous we think its application might be.

Maybe it would have been best if I’d just shut up and said nothing. But sometimes you just have to point out rules that might have just gone a bit mad.

And if nothing else it feels better to have gotten it off my chest.

Grapegrower & Winemaker

21

Best of

boutique Nathan Gogoll reports

THE OLD Macquarie dictionary that sits on my desk defines boutique as… a small shop selling fashionable or luxury articles esp. for women. Not exactly helpful in the context we are considering. Yet, apart from the inherent sexism of the old national dictionary, there you could easily tweak this to suit small, independent winemaking businesses… a small winery selling fashionable or luxury wines.

To go one step further and classify the size, you just need to take a look at the Association of Australian Boutique Winemakers Inc. It defines a boutique wine company as one which crushes and bottles 250 tonnes or less annually under its own label and is owned independently.

Which now provides both the practical definition and the aspiration for many of the wine producers who fall into this category.

A quick scan through the 33rd edition of the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory reveals the scale of small producer involvement in the industry. There are more than 2000 Australian wine producers crushing less than 250 tonnes and

more than 420 NZ producers who fall into the same category. In fact, the vast majority of producers across the Australian and New Zealand wine landscape (84%) crush less than 250 tonnes.

And there is some excellent wine being made by the small producers, with brands from Alpha Box & Dice, Amato Vino and Ata Rangi through to Yabby Lake, Yelland & Papps and Wooing Tree all featuring in this category.

There’s also no shortage of acclaim from wine writers and wine shows for the products from this section of the industry.

Try this on for size, of the past four Jimmy Watson trophy winners, two have been from the boutique category (and across the past 10 years of this award, only three of the winning wineries crush more than 500 tonnes).

A close look at the sixth edition of the Langton’s Classification of Australian Wine reveals that close to 40% of the wines across the three tiers (exceptional, outstanding, excellent) are made by wineries, you guessed it, that crush less than 250 tonnes.

Clearly, the ‘boutique’ section of the Australian wine industry has a lot of offer. There is huge diversity across this

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www.winebiz.com.au

May 2015 – Issue 616

ARDS AW

WISA SU P

OF THE YE AR IER L P

WINNER 2014

It is a challenge for small wineries to establish strong brand recognition in a congested market. The beauty of small wineries is that we don’t need a lot of people to know about us for our wines to sell out given our smaller productions. sector and the people involved are taking a risk on their own small business.

It takes great skill and engineering to run a small winery.

A lot of creativity to make and package wine. And also a good amount of self-promotion, and good marketing knowledge.

Never mind the ability to wade through the specifications of bottle weights and shapes and all the different ducks you need to line up to get a label stuck to the chosen bottle.

Andrew Marks, from The Wanderer Wines – who Jane Faulkner has highlighted later in this piece, believes small producers can represent the most interesting elements of the wine industry. But he does warn it is “certainly not always the case”.

“The wine industry is in a constant state of flux and the market is constantly picking new darlings being new producers or wine styles, philosophies and varieties,” Marks said. “This

does make for a challenging environment for wine businesses, large and small, to be successful. I think there is a temptation for producers to chase the next trend. I am a strong proponent of the Glenn McGrath approach – line and length. If you prosecute your philosophy consistently with good results for long enough the consumer should respect your efforts.”

“I focus on making the best wine I can each season. If I can rely on the wine to speak for itself then my job is a lot easier. I also try and maintain good relationships with all of my markets whether they are customers or suppliers.”

“It is a challenge for small wineries to establish strong brand recognition in a congested market. The beauty of small wineries is that we don’t need a lot of people to know about us for our wines to sell out given our smaller productions. In a small winery you manage the complete chain of production from grape growing, winemaking to marketing and sales. You have the ability to be flexible and innovative without layers of bureaucracy. It is a great reward to be able to turn a vision into reality.”

Bryan Martin, from Ravensworth Wines – selected here by Jeni Port, agrees small producers can be more interesting, but not necessarily because of the size.

“It’s possibly a mindset because, being small, you can be very reactive and are probably not living just off the brand solely, as is my case. I work full time, as does my partner, so this [Ravensworth] doesn’t feed the kids, so to speak.”

“You can be free to be more experimental, which makes me happy. I’m playing around with all sorts of things now,

La Violetta Great Southern, Western Australia

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes La Violetta began producing small quantities of wine at Denmark, on Western Australia’s south coast, in 2008. Grapes are sourced from a handful of trusted growers with exceptional vineyards, some amongst the oldest in the state. The idea is to keep production at a small scale so that each wine is personally hand-crafted.

Before being lured west by the quality of Great Southern grapes, winemaker Andrew Hoadley worked all over Australia’s cool and hot zones and in Piedmont, Abruzzo and Washington State.

Sami-Odi Barossa

FAVOURITE FIVE JANE FAULKNER Wine writer and wine show judge

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes Bespoke packaging and miniscule production sets Fraser McKinley and his Sami-Odi wines apart. The Kiwi has been in the Barossa for more than 10 years and has worked with Torbreck, Massena and the Standish Wine Company. His wines have been described as “truly unique, idiosyncratic, and genuinely rare”.

Ruggabellus Barossa

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes Abel Gibson has a strong Barossa background and, in his words, he takes

24 Grapegrower & Winemaker

www.winebiz.com.au

“great pleasure in exploring its strengths – an ancient landscape with a great resource of young and very old vines”.

For a few years Abel has worked with small parcels of Grenache, Mataro, Syrah and Cinsault and more recently with old vine Riesling, Semillon and Muscat.

Billy Button Alpine Valleys, North Eastern Victoria

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes Jo Marsh started her career in Southcorp Wines’ (now Treasury Wine Estates) Graduate Recruitment Program, before working her way up the ranks at Seppelt Great Western. She then joined Feathertop Wines in Porepunkah and fell in love with the Alpine Valleys. In 2014 she made wine under her own label on Alpine Valleys turf.

Marsh’s plan is to “impress the socks off serious enthusiasts and everyday drinkers alike”.

The Wanderer Yarra Valley, Victoria

Crush: Less than 10 tonnes Andrew Marks makes The Wanderer wines in the Upper Yarra Valley where his family vineyard, Gembrook Hill, is located. His aim is to deliver individual wines of flavour, character and balance. Marks works with low-yielding vineyards and relies on ‘minimal winemaking’.

May 2015 – Issue 616

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FAVOURITE FIVE DAVE BROOKES Wine scribe and wine show judge

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Sentio Wines Beechworth, North East Victoria

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes “Encouragement award: Chris Catlow works out of an old mental asylum (yes you read that correctly) in this beautiful part of North-East Victoria. Syrah, Pinot Noir and a terrific trio of Chardonnay hailing from Beechworth, Macedon and the superb Lusatia Park vineyard in the Yarra Valley. A fantastic lineup and a name we’ll be hearing more of in the future, I am certain.”

“A proudly 100% Australian owned company, servicing scientific laboratories since 1987.”

Head Wines Barossa

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes “Most consistent: Alex Head has to be the most consistent and consistently-improving boutique producer out there, in my opinion. Sources fruit from great vineyards and shows great respect for the raw material in the winery, guiding wine to the bottle in a considered manner and the results are just delicious.”

Ricca Terra Farms Riverland (Barmera), South Australia

“Outstanding example of ‘daring to be different’: Time to give a grower some props, Ashley Ratcliff from Ricca Terra Farms in Barmara does a fantastic job championing alternative varieties and raising the profile of the Riverland. Supplying fruit to a collection of great boutique producers (Brash Higgins, Bellwether Wines, Amato Vino, Unico Zelo, Sam Scott Wines and some bigger companies) his raw product has gone into award-winning wines and the producers proudly put ‘Riverland’ on the label, great for the region, grower and producer.”

Ochota Barrels Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes “Most popular: Taras Ochota is whipping up some amazing wines in the Adelaide Hills, at Basket Range. Bright, textured, aromatic whites; soulful Pinot Noir; and without doubt, the finest Grenache in the country. Would go close to taking out the award for best wine names as well. Just great wines."

Special Mention “Most improved: I’m going to paint with a broad brush here and just say Chardonnay. Who would have thought a variety could rise phoenix-like from the ashes of the ‘ABC’ movement and get to a point where the wines at the upper echelon easily give the big names of Burgundy a run for the money. A polite golf-clap those crafting some superb, world-class wines."

May 2015 – Issue 616

REF:212

www.winebiz.com.au

x/marketing/advertising/212.Grape.Growers.1.12.14

Grapegrower & Winemaker

25

whites on skins, not adding anything to the fruit, a 3 bar (atm) Pet Nat Riesling, carbonic-macerated whole cluster Gamay, a long-soaked Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Barbera, Pinot Gris made in ceramic eggs along with my bread and butter Shiraz Viognier and Riesling.

“I’m also making vermouth based on grenache and a heap of wild botanicals and native honey from Tim Malfroy with Giorgio De Maria.

“What does it take? I think you need to be reactive and experimental. Maybe it’s just keeping me happy doing this stuff but my brand has flourished over the last two years and I put it mostly down to being interesting and never standing still.

“The challenge is to never forget you are a primarily a farmer, I love working in my little vineyard but we’ve had some challenges over the past few years with hail and frosts, so some years I make very little in response but in good years, like this year, I’m ready and have the resources to take advantage and make as much as I can.

“I do feel lucky to have been working with Tim at Clonakilla for the last 10 years, it’s a job but I’d do it anyway and he has been really supportive of me growing my own brand, possible wonders why I’m doing all this weird stuff but knows that its keeping me passionate and that does come across in the brand, hopefully.”

Martin has outlined a few key points, and one that he quickly touched on is networking with industry peers. I’ve seen this in

action, winemakers from small producers are always keen to have a chat and check out what others are doing.

Fraser McKinley from Sami-Odi, another selection from Jane Faulkner, said it is “amazing” how prepared people are to share information. He works with the Hoffmann family at the northern end of the Barossa and regularly catches up with other small winemakers.

“I got to know the Hoffmann family when I worked for Torbreck and I learned about agriculture through them. The first time I went out picking with them there were four generations of the Hoffmann clan out in the vineyard,” McKinley said.

“I’ve also got Abel Gibson from Ruggabellus and Brett Grocke from Eperosa who I catch up with every Friday. Rather than go to the pub we meet in a vineyard or a cellar and share a wine.

We do that every week and we’ve never run out of things to talk about. People in this industry are happy to share their information and tell you what they’re doing with their farming.

“I can only speak for the Barossa, but even the big guys are really open, the sharing doesn’t stop with the one-man bands.”

Small producers are also in a position to be more involved in each stage of the process.

George Mihaly, from Paradigm Hill – a Jeni Port selection, believes the personal involvement that small producers have with the vineyards “leads to a more intimate understanding of the vineyard and the season”.

“It is this smaller scale of operation that enables single

Paradigm Hill

Holm Oak Vineyards

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

Tamar Valley, Tasmania

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes A paradigm shift for Ruth and George Mihaly saw them turn from established careers in food and medical research to viticulture and winemaking, respectively.

A focus on balanced, healthy vines producing carefully selected, exceptional and low yielding fruit is the backbone of the estate-grown wines. Riesling, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir and Shiraz.

“Perfectionist, excellent Pinot Noir maker among other things,” said Port.

Crush: Less than 100 tonnes Established in 1983, now 12Ha planted to Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Arneis, Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon.

The vineyard is owned by Ian and Robyn Wilson and is leased by Rebecca and her husband Tim Duffy. Grapes grown, wine made and bottled on site – which means full control from vineyard-to-bottle.

“Does everything so very well,” said Port.

Ravensworth Wines

Clare Valley

Canberra District, ACT/NSW

FAVOURITE FIVE JENI PORT Wine writer

26 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes Bryan Martin is also a chef, food educator and writer (he has just published a cookbook). He raised black pigs to slaughter and make into ham just because he “wanted the experience”. With wine he experiments with whites on skins, zero additions, slightly sparkling Pet Nat Riesling, carbonic-macerated whole-bunch Gamay, long-soaked Nebbiolo, sangiovese, barbera, pinot gris made in ceramic eggs along with my bread and butter Shiraz Viognier and Riesling.

“Bryan Martin works at Clonakilla but his off-duty Ravensworth wines are every bit as meticulous in their making,” said Port.

www.winebiz.com.au

Wines by KT Crush: Less than 50 tonnes Kerri Thompson has lived and made wine in the Clare Valley since 1998 and started her own wine business in 2006.

The Peglidis and Churinga vineyards, in Watervale, provide the single-vineyard wines (Riesling, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo).

“Superb Rieslings,” said Port.

Bellarmine Wines Pemberton, Western Australia

Crush: Less than 100 tonnes Estate grown wines, 20ha of the Bellarmine property are planted to Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. First vintage was 2004.

“All-rounder, but a mighty selection of Riesling from Pemberton,” said Port.

May 2015 – Issue 616

Pyramid Valley Vineyards North Canterbury, New Zealand

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes “Mike and Claudia probably started pushing boundaries well before it was being considered elsewhere across New Zealand and Australia. Biodynamic, large use of Amphorae, unconventional methods.

They let the purity of fruit speak for itself.

Great stuff, gaining a huge following.”

Dalrymple

FAVOURITE FIVE ALEX JOHN Industry supplier (AP John Cooperage) and wine fan

Pipers Brook, Tasmania

Crush: Less than 100 tonnes “At the forefront of the Tassie Pinot wave.

Pete Caldwell Turning out wonderfully focused wines, single vineyard example Coal River Valley the ones to watch. Better and better each vintage.”

William Downie Gippsland, Victoria

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes “Probably the most pure, vibrant Australian Pinot Noir. Wonderful fruit tannin and structure from his gentle winemaking methods. Understands Australian Pinot is

not the same as Burgundy and is trying to make a product that speaks of a place and it’s ‘terroir’.”

Honeymoon Vineyards Adelaide Hills

Crush: Less than 20 tonnes “Hilton McLean and Jane Bromeley produce really expressive, terrifically-made sparkling, Pinot Noir and Shiraz. One of the best Adelaide Hills Shiraz out there, estate fruit. 2012 took out last year’s AH Cool Climate Shiraz.”

Ruggabellus Barossa

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes “Abel Gibson makes complex Grenache/ Mataro/Shiraz blends. The three different wines each with their own character and personality. It is great to hear him refer to them as people through their life spans.

Savoury, textural Barossa fruit.”

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

27

vineyard characteristics to be captured and in a manner that is distinctive for each season,” Mihaly said.

Of course, this doesn’t make dealing with difficult seasons any easier.

“There is the uncertainty posed by each unique season – and in particular the impact of extreme weather events,” Mihaly said. “Smaller producers don’t usually have a ‘back up’ vineyard from another region to soften the blow of crop loss, like the crop losses from the extreme heat events in 2009 or reduced flowering, fruit set and eventually a smaller crop in 2014.”

Small producer are also not immune to industry-wide issues and, like all producers, they have seen the double-edged impact of a strong Australian dollar – making export conditions tough, but also driving imports of relatively-inexpensive, quality wines from overseas.

But Mihaly believes the small producers that succeed have an “unwavering commitment to quality” coupled with a personal representation which can help to “minimise the adverse impact of these issues”.

“Starting from a green field, literally, and then establishing credentials and credibility of a premium wine label in a highly competitive market and in a fairly short period of time has been the most confronting challenge. On top of this, there is an inherent limitation of a small producer in that there is no ‘economy of scale’ to contain costs... So justifying the value proposition of boutique wines – by demonstrating the benefits of wines that show a ‘sense of place’ has been and probably will continue to be an ongoing issue. Then again, the creation of a respected brand and range of wines, coupled with recognition for excellence among peers and customers is without doubt the greatest reward that a smaller producer can wish to receive.”

FAVOURITE FIVE DENIS GASTIN Wine journalist and consultant

Bloodwood Orange, New South Wales

Crush: Less than 100 tonnes “Stephen and Rhonda opened a new chapter in the Australian wine story when they planted grapes in ancient, elevated soils in the Orange region in 1983, paving the way for a rapidly expanding new local industry. Working with Riesling and Chardonnay for the whites and Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Pinot Noir for the reds, they have set new elegant and restrained cool climate styles that are presented with great gusto and humour at the cellar door. Frankly, it’s worth a visit just to sign up to the hilariously entertaining Bloodwood newsletters.”

M. Chapoutier Heathcote, Victoria

Crush: Less than 200 tonnes “Here, one of the global wine giants and signature producer from the Old World, presents its carefully evolved range of boutique Australian wines. Chardonnay and Riesling, in addition to the wines based on traditional Rhône varieties.”

Pierro Margaret River, Western Australia

Crush: Less than 200 tonnes “More of a shed, rather than an ‘Estate’, a visit to Pierro’s cellar door delivers new experiences. Apart from the world ranked Pierro Chardonnay and the Cabernet-based Margaret River style stalwarts, a compelling reason for visiting for wine adventurers is the unique Pierro Pinot Noir. This was a first for the region, a style derived from unconventional vineyard practices (for Australia) with very low yielding vines planted way back in 1980 when this variety was rarely thought of in Australia, especially for this region. The wine is a delight, and still a surprise in this region.”

Cobaw Ridge Macedon Ranges, Victoria

Crush: Less than 50 tonnes “One of the pioneer wineries in the still emerging Macedon Ranges, Cobaw Ridge has been a leader in pioneering the benchmark Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays for which the region is now renowned. On their isolated vineyard on the northern slopes of the Ranges Alan and Nellie Cooper, and now son Joshua, manage their vineyard strictly according to the organic and biodynamic codes in order to deliver what they believe their terroir represents and were the first Australian winery accredited under the exacting viticulture standards of the France-based Renaissance des Appellations.”

David Franz Barossa, South Australia

Crush: Less than 100 tonnes “The Dave Franz Lehmann approach to viticulture and winemaking is passionate, intense and artistic – all of which is fully represented in his wines. He launched with the Barossa’s traditional varietal strengths (Riesling, Semillon, Shiraz) and Cabernet, drawing on some of the best fruit grown in the region, including from the Lehmann family vineyards. More recently he has added an impressive Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Adelaide Hills fruit and, very recently, a sticky, a Vincotto and a grape and apple cider.”

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Your Vineyard Your Voice

The Newsletter of Wine Grape Growers Australia

May 2015

WGGA protecting your interests in times of change Changes being brought about by the current difficult times mean growers have much to lose without a strong national voice to protect their interests.

We believe, that in the past five years, WGGA has enhanced growers’ political impact at the national level and is poised to contribute significantly to the big industry issues.

On growers behalf, WGGA works to improve the market for winegrapes, provides unbiased information on the state of the industry, protects vineyards against exotic pests and diseases and makes sure the grower voice is heard when it comes to policies affecting grower businesses. We speak for growers in direct negotiations with the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia, the Australian Grape and Wine Authority, the commonwealth government and other bodies both in and outside industry.

We have negotiated a significant change to the Wine Industry Code of Conduct in the past 12 months, to address the short timeframe available to resolve disputes occurring during vintage.

For the 2015 harvest onwards, the timeframe has been extended from 14 days to 60 days – a big improvement for growers. Other Code changes are under discussion.

Through action this year, WGGA will deliver in 2015-16, a Strategic Plan/Business Case for implementing national viticulture industry biosecurity arrangements.

WGGA has extended its role in agricultural chemicals to improve responsible access to them for vineyard use. Lifting restrictions on the use of Phos Acid because of China’s MRLs is hoped to be resolved in the second half of 2015. WGGA has taken up membership of an advisory committee to the commonwealth government to reduce red tape for accessing agrichemicals and improving access to overseas sourced products.

We have also gained the assistance of the national Office of the Small Business Commissioner, to convene a roundtable discussion in May this year on commercial practices between wine companies and winegrape growers. The discussion will identify ways to improve such practices so that growers and the industry as a whole

are better served. WGGA has long argued that some traditional commercial practices in the wine sector not only disfavour growers but also do a disservice to the industry as a whole by undermining the mechanisms that should keep the industry vibrant, responsive to consumer needs and matching supply with demand. These practices go the heart of a grower’s bottom-line through the prices they receive or the costs they incur.

Wine tax, or in particular the Wine Equalisation Tax Rebate, has been tackled by the organisation in 2015. Important decisions requiring careful analysis and difficult discussions have occurred.

Decisions are difficult in this area where there are winners and losers but we believe we have acted in the interest of the majority of growers and the industry as a whole.

Your Vineyard Your Voice Do you care about the future of winegrape growing?

With your support we:

• Improve market conditions for winegrapes • Provide a national grower voice in industry debates • Lobby the commonwealth government

Join now!

• Facilitate industry biosecurity arrangements • Provide services to help run your vineyard more effectively.

Visit www.wgga.com.au or phone 08 8133 4400

We attempt to build grower capacity through our organisation.

Our Executive Committee this year continued to support the next generation of growers and has continued the trend towards a more youthful profile. WGGA conducted a grower seminar in November 2014 to highlight the positive role that innovation could play in a brighter future. We also assisted two member viticulturists to attend the 2014 Vinitech-Sifel exhibition in Bordeaux as VIP guests of the event organisers. Not only did Simon Berry and Sam Bowman benefit directly from this opportunity, they have also brought back a wealth of new knowledge about vineyard management technology to share with us all.

A modest investment in membership of WGGA for 2015-16 will assist us with this work. Please sign on.

Level 1, Industry House, National Wine Centre Cnr Botanic and Hackney Roads, Adelaide, SA 5000 Telephone (08) 8133 4400 Fax (08) 8133 4466 Email info@wgga.com.au Website www.wgga.com.au

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WGGA News

On Supply, Demand and Prices Winegrape price determination in Australia is largely ad hoc and at the discretion of individual wine companies. In itself, this is not a bad thing but among all of the things that contribute to balancing supply and demand, the most fundamental element is price.

Therefore it comes under suspicion as a key factor in the failure of supply to match demand, a feature of the industry for so long.

And it goes further, the fundamental nature of this element means that addressing it will yield the most transformative and enduring change in the Australian wine sector’s economic health.

Two approaches are most frequently talked about to for balancing supply with demand.

The first is growing demand. Granted, this is a solution.

Moreover, it is absolutely essential. But it is not sufficient. By comparison to installing effective pricing mechanisms, it is a poorer solution. Poorer because it is short-term (until the others catch-up) and as such, on its own, a band-aid that soon loses its stick and peels away.

The second is improving quality. So how does this factor relate to the issue of price determination? Well, in an industry with discretionary pricing, the relationship between prices and quality is at best variable but in many cases, absent. It begs the logical question, if quality were as important as people say, why wouldn’t it be regularly incentivised by price rewards? But it isn’t, not regularly.

The common response at this stage is that if the current low winegrape prices are not an effective signal for removing vines to balance supply with demand – then what is? The answer follows.

If we examine just two determinants of price (there are others), it is useful to consider quality and supply and demand balances (supply greater than demand means price down, demand greater than supply means price up).

Everyone is familiar with the role of supply/demand in determining price but the lack of delineation between this and quality as a determinant causes us problems. Take for example the classification of fruit by grades. In our industry, grades are defined by price ranges. Just have a look at the recent Expert Review: A grade fruit, >A$2,000/tonne; B grade fruit A$1,501 – 1,999/tonne; and so on down to E/F grade fruit, <A$300/tonne. Are these quality grades? This is the way they are perceived and treated.

However, if they are quality, the industry is in trouble because the proportions of fruit in the lower ‘grades’ have increased in recent years. Poorer quality? Perhaps not. We are after all, continuing to punch above our weight in international wine competitions. The answer is more likely to be that the downward shift in ‘grades’ reflects the poorer supply/demand balance and therefore lower prices. Evidence again that pricing is about supply and demand balances, not about rewarding quality.

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The real crime in an industry that praises the virtues of quality but rewards fruit based on the supply and demand balances, is that quality becomes non-transparent and is unaccountable in the buying and selling of fruit. Truth is, a lack of transparency means winegrape prices are open to manipulation by winegrape purchasers and this has the effect of not just severely blunting the incentives for quality but also undermining buyer/seller relationships.

Price is not an issue of fairness, decency or ethics. It’s good business and the most fundamental determinant of balancing supply with demand.

It is notable that compared to the wine sector, most other agricultural industries in Australia have dealt with the issue of price determination. Many of the price determination mechanisms devised elsewhere deal directly with quality, some deal with issues like risk from spoilage and others the influence of global factors on Australian prices. All of these are relevant to Australian winegrapes.

The trick is to understand the degree of relevance to getting the amount and nature of supply that’s needed by wine processors and designing the mechanism that incentivises this.

It is important to note that price determination mechanisms will not ensure everyone gets a profitable price. Rather, price determination mechanisms, if they are the right ones, will mean the best operators and the most-needed fruit are retained in an adjustment process and the exit of the least needed, will be incentivised. That is, adjustment to the right amount, of the right type.

It can be argued winegrapes are different from other agricultural commodities. It is more complicated by dint of nuance, subjectivity and a high degree of differentiation. But this is not a reason for inaction. It just means the Australian wine sector has to be clever enough to design a system to suit its own set of circumstances.

Most people in the wine sector understand these issues (see the survey work reported in ‘Growers and winemakers say objective measures need to improve’, March 2013 United Grower) but the question has to be asked, where’s the leadership? If the response is ‘it’s too hard’, shame. If it is ‘we have been doing business like this for ages and we are not going to change’, double shame.

Innovation is key and this is an area where innovative practices have simply not been broached at an industry level. The recourse to innovation in the wine sector has traditionally focused on science and marketing. How about economics? Keep in mind accounting is the science of recording how much money you’ve got while economics is the science of how monetary considerations motivate behaviour. Behaviour is what we are trying to address here.

See extended article on www.wgga.com.au

WGGA News

What’s the difference between the Californian and Australian wine industries?

Not a lot really The commentary about the economics of current harvests in Australia and California are remarkably similar and reflect the similar nature of the two industries. Closer examination also points to increasing globalisation of commodity wine.

Poor economic prospects for commodity winegrapes in both countries has led to current guidance from relevant service bodies that growers should consider alternatives; alternative crops, reducing inputs and mothballing, grubbing or even selling up.

Like Australia, California has a broad divide between ‘irrigated’ (or warm) winegrowing districts and coolertemperate districts. California’s warm districts are the Central Valley while ours are the Riverland, Murray Valley and Riverina. Two-thirds of Australia’s winegrape production come out of Australia’s warm districts and a half of California’s out of the Central Valley.

Australia’s warm winegrape production supplies commodity wine production, as does the Central Valley’s.

The commonality of commodity wine circumstances in California and Australia are a hint of the globalising nature of the commodity wine business, a position which is confirmed by references in both locations, to the increased competition from low-cost competitors like Argentina, Chile, South Africa and Spain.

The messages about the prospects for California’s commodity winegrapes are very similar to those currently being heard from the Riverland, Murray Valley and Riverina. For all, it is 'ample supply and falling demand'. In both countries, higher price-point wines are travelling better, particularly with recovering economies in key markets.

Moreover, there are warnings that the near future for commodity wine is deteriorating. Commodity wine trade is set to become more competitive.

In the 10 years ended 2013, the volumes of bulk compared to bottled wine shipments by new world wine exporters shifted from roughly 30:70 to 50:50 – providing everyone with the opportunity to move commodity wine.

However, Rabobank warns that bulk wine shipments are expected to slow as advances in the enabling shipping

technology are becoming fully exploited and US consumers are headed for the premium end as its economy recovers.

There are a few basic options available to improve the prospects of commodity wine. One is more proactive marketing of this segment, another is making ours better than theirs (enough said already in this edition of the United Grower), developing lower-cost business models or finally, exiting this segment of the market.

Returning to the theme of similarities between California and Australia, it is interesting to note that not everything is the same. Traditionally, the major US activity to bring supply and demand into balance has been supply adjustment while in Australia, the emphasis has been on growing demand. Moreover, California has shown great flexibility in removing vine areas while clearly, in Australia, vineyards are removed reluctantly.

Sounds like another economic research project to learn what we can about the difference between two industries that appear so similar.

Reviews in view The extended period of economic difficulties in the wine sector, and the debate about how to turn this around, has bred a flood of reviews in 2015. More specifically; a Roundtable, and Industry Leader’s Forum, an Inquiry and a Summit.

Inquiry into the wine industry with a wide-ranging Terms of Reference spanning from winegrape grower profitability through to retailer power and influence. Submissions due 22 May 2015 and a report by November.

As highlighted in the March United Grower, the national Office of the Small Business Commissioner has responded to a WGGA request for industry dialogue on commercial practices between growers and wine companies. This is scheduled for May.

The Winegrape Growers Council of South Australia will again conduct a conference to provide information that will assist grower decision-making. 17 July 2015.

An Industry Leaders Forum is planned for July/August to consider consolidating the industry representative structure, with a view to greater industry unity, as well as identifying the priority industry issues for address.

In the meantime, a group of Senators have set up a Senate

While these events seem to overlap, WGGA is confident they can be complementary and support each other. It is anticipated they will offer a comprehensive view of solutions to industry issues taken from a range of perspectives.

WGGA will be there to represent the grower view on national issues.

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WGGA News

A WGGA membership category for everyone GENERAL MEMBERSHIP

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP

Open to all Australian winegrape growers or winemakers who grow grapes.

Open to any person or entity with an interest in winegrape growing.

This is the only category with voting rights at WGGA general meetings and eligibility for positions on the Executive Committee. An excellent way to be intimately involved in grower policy and programs.

This category receives recognition of their support for growers in all WGGA communications, including a profile on the WGGA website and acknowledgement in our newsletter. A great opportunity to expose products and services to the Australian grape and wine community.

SA growers who pay the state Grower Industry Levy are not required to pay a membership subscription because a part of the levy pays for WGGA membership. Please register with us though so that we can distribute our newsletter to you and make exclusive offers to you.

Service providers who would like to investigate other ways to reach growers might also check our sponsorship and advertising opportunities for 2015-16.

STUDENT MEMBERSHIP

AFFILIATE MEMBERSHIP Open to all State and Regional winegrape grower and/or winemaker associations.

This category guarantees a personal visit to your region by a WGGA executive member, with the opportunity for your grower members to meet and discuss your local issues and concerns.

In 2015-16, WGGA is again extending General Membership to any member of an Affiliate association for no additional fee.

They simply need to register with us.

Open to any student in a wine sector related course.

This category is a good option for students interested in grower networking or leadership, with the opportunity to also apply to be a part of the Decision Support Network.

Student members can also access our ‘Members’ Only’ statistical information.

Visit the Membership section on our website at www.wgga.com.au for further details.

WGGA will be at WGGA staff will be at the WISA WineTech Trade Show from 14-16 July 2015, at the Adelaide Showground in South Australia.

Come and see us in ‘The Hub’ – a designated area for visitors to come and speak to the national bodies on industry issues and organisational activities.

The Executive Director (Lawrie Stanford)

and Chair (Vic Patrick) will be available for one-on-one conversations with growers, and administrative staff will be present to answer your queries about membership, sponsorship opportunities and more.

The event is free and a great opportunity to view the latest industry products and services, with the program comprising a good number of grower related

presentations and exhibitors. Not to mention give-aways during the three days.

Keep an eye on our website for more information about times when Lawrie and Vic will be available for discussion as well as any further developments.

Visit the WineTech website for full details about the event (www.winetechaustralia.com.au)

WGGA Associate Members

WGGA proudly acknowledges its associate members: AHA Viticulture

Gaetjens Langley

Performance Viticulture

SCE Energy Solutions

Bayer CropScience

Lallemand Oenology

PFG Australia

Vine Sight

Belvino Investments

National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA)

Retallack Viticulture

Vitibit

River Murray Training

Woodshield

Broke Fordwich Wine Tourism Association

Stay on top paraquat 250 g/L Use Spraytop® in combination with glyphosate and glufosinate to stay on top of herbicide resistance.

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grapegrowing

How to return to growth?

Lessons from previous wine cycles In an effort to provide clear insights from Australia’s wine industry history, wine economist and University of Adelaide Professor Kym Anderson has compiled a comprehensive statistical account of the sector’s evolution over the past 170 years. His new book, Growth and Cycles in Australia’s Wine Industry, includes annual data that reveal the Australian wine sector’s booms and contractions between 1843 and 2013, along with information on the country’s many wine regions and their evolving winegrape varietal mixes. In this report Professor Anderson outlines the distinct cycles in the wine sector’s history and uses these to discuss plans for a return to growth.

THE PERFECT storm of shocks that hit the Australian wine industry in recent years interrupted what had been the longest boom in its history.

The downturn in grape and wine prices has been blamed largely on the appreciation of the Australian dollar (AUD).

If that was the only cause, then the AUD’s depreciation over the past two-plus years should have lifted prices. Yet the export price in AUD has been flat during the past 4 years and, consistent with the correlation of the past three decades, so too has been the average grape price (Figure 1).

This suggests exchange rate changes are not the only reason for the decline in Australia’s competitiveness since its exports peaked in 2007.

When expressed in US dollars, since 2001 the average wine export price has more than doubled for France and New Zealand, and almost doubled for the United States. Even for Chile it has risen 50% since 2003, despite their boom in copper export earnings. The US$ export price for Australian wines, by contrast, has been on a slight downward trend for the past decade (Figure 2).

Evidently more will be needed than just the recent downturn in the AUD to restore profitability to the country’s grape and wine producers.

What can we learn from earlier booms about how to return the industry to a growth trajectory that is sustainable and less vulnerable to yet another plateau?

A new book that brings together and analyses annual data

Figure 1: Average AUD price of winegrapes and of exports, and vine bearing area, Australia, 1986 to 2014 May 2015 – Issue 616

Wine production has grown little when expressed per dollar of overall GDP, but that trend has been upwards because yields per hectare have risen. since 1843 (Anderson 2015) provides an opportunity to address that question. Those data show that Australia’s wine industry expanded throughout most of the past 17 decades but that, around that very long-run trend, there have been five distinct cycles of boom and plateau in vine area and wine production.

Those cycles are clearly seen when the vine bearing area is expressed as a percent of the country’s total crop area. Each expansion of the bearing area of vineyards was rather rapid, but in each case it was followed by a longer period of decline. This index suggests that the industry has been losing competitiveness to other crops since the end of the 19th century (Figure 3). Even wine production has grown little when expressed per dollar of overall GDP, but that trend has been upwards because yields per hectare have risen thanks to an expanding share of vines being irrigated and to more grapes being used in recent decades for wine rather than other uses.

Only two of the four previous booms involved the industry becoming more outward-focused: the period just prior to the

Figure 2: Unit value of wine exports, Australia and competitor countries, 1990 to 2014 (US$ per litre)

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

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grapegrowing

Figure 3: Vine bearing area per capita and wine production per $ of GDP, Australia, 1843 to 2013 (2007 = 100)

Figure 4: Exports as % of wine production and imports as % of apparent wine consumption, Australia, 1843 to 2013 (3-year moving average)

1890s’ depression, and the post-World War I period prior to the depression of the early 1930s (Figure 4).

The other two booms, 1855-71 and 1967-75, were driven almost entirely by domestic demand growth, generated by rapid immigration and income growth.

manufactures and twice the average for the agricultural sector.

That helps explain both the low share of imported wine in domestic consumption and the relatively low level of wine consumption per capita up to the mid-1960s.

With returns to winemakers falling from the late 1920s, a vine-pull scheme by the South Australian Government was introduced in 1936. That contributed to two-thirds of the Coonawarra region’s vines being uprooted. Meanwhile, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, farmers began turning to dairying; and in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, the area of vines was eventually halved. Hence the total vine area in Australia grew only by one-fifth between the mid-1920s and mid-1960s, and it was five decades before the annual volume of wine exports achieved in the late 1930s (artificially boosted to build stocks in Britain for the foreshadowed war) was again reached.

The export assistance in the interwar period was a mixed blessing at best: being confined to fortified wines it undermined the growing British and continental European interest in Australian dry table wines that had been slowly building up over the previous few decades; and, by being volumetric rather than ad valorem, the trade measures dampened the incentive to produce higher-quality wines.

In 1947 Britain raised its tariff on fortified wines five-fold (and kept it very high until the end of the 1950s) and the Australian government removed its wine export bounty. Britain hiked its tariff on fortified wines again in the late 1960s, and in 1973 it joined the European Economic Community which allowed duty-free access to Britain for wines from the other EEC member countries.

The Korean War-induced wool price boom and then subsidies to other farm products meant sheep, wheat, milk and tobacco production appealed more to farmers than winegrapes. As well, tighter import restrictions on other manufactured goods boosted the import-competing industrial sector, while the removal in the early 1960s of a ban on iron ore exports triggered a boom in mining exploration, both of which indirectly dampened producer incentives in other sectors including wine.

The 50 per cent rise in wine consumption in the 1960s was helped by a one-third increase in real income per capita, by brand advertising and generic promotion domestically, by the influx of wine-preferring immigrants from southern Europe, and by many more young Australians travelling to Europe once cheap airfares for under-26-year-olds were introduced. (A symptom of the influence of southern Europeans on Australian preferences was the gradual transformation of non-alcoholic beverage consumption from 3kg of tea and 0.4kg of coffee per

THE EARLIER EXPORT BOOMS Both of the previous export-intensive cycles were partly induced by government support policies that led to surplus production. Exporting in those periods was thus more a means of disposing of a surplus than a source of sustainable growth.

National wine production at the start of the 20th century was three times its 1880 level. As it had grown faster than domestic demand, one-sixth of the newly federated country’s wine production was being exported (as bulk full-bodied reds), albeit at low FOB prices.

Following World War I, the vine area expanded rapidly again, encouraged by the subsidised settlement on farms of ex-servicemen, particularly in the newly developed Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area of NSW and along the Murray River. Annual output of wine more than doubled in the decade to 1925, leading to a glut especially of Doradillo grapes whose price fell by two-thirds in 1924.

The Australian Government decided to further assist producers in the newly planted areas in the form of a volumetric bounty on fortified wine exports. The export bounty almost doubled the price received by producers, which dampened domestic fortified wine sales at the same time as boosting production and exports of fortified wines.

Then in its June 1925 budget, the British Government introduced, by way of thanks for war contributions, tariff preferences for wines from the British Empire that effectively halved the duty paid by Australia in that market. Like the export bounty, the UK import duty was volumetric rather than ad valorem, thereby discriminating in favour of low-quality wines; and the UK preference was four times as great for fortified as for still wine, further depressing the incentive to produce quality still wines.

The industry continued to be assisted also during the interwar and early post-WWII period by import tariffs on wine and brandy, a sales tax of 15 per cent on imported but not domestically produced wine, excise taxes on beer and spirits but not on wine, and a lower excise tax on brandy than on other spirits.

The import tax on wine was non-trivial, generating a rate of industry assistance that was above the average for other

34 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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May 2015 – Issue 616

grapegrowing

The post-harvest period is an ideal opportunity to safeguard or reestablish vine health leading up to leaf fall. It’s important to ensure vines go into dormancy with sufficient carbohydrate and mineral reserves to support next season’s early growth, from budburst through to flowering. After flowering, the vine generally has enough leaf area to start supporting its needs.

Ideally, leaves should remain healthy, hydrated and functional from harvest to leaf drop.

Nutrition leading into dormancy is important. As an example, the typical proportions of total seasonal mineral nutrient taken up by grapevines in the post-harvest period in the Riverina is about 30 per cent for nitrogen and phosphorus, 20 per cent for magnesium and calcium, and 15 per cent for potassium. Post-harvest period vine nutrition goes hand in hand with irrigation and water stress will reduce the plants ability to take up nutrients, so keep an eye on soil moisture and irrigate when appropriate.

I’m often asked about post-harvest application of fungicides, in particular, for Powdery Mildew control. The Riverina, with its relatively long time interval between harvest and leaf fall, is a good example of an area where Powdery Mildew can build-up. Generally, Powdery Mildew infects young leaves, so for post-harvest carbohydrate and mineral nutrient restoration (which relies largely on the functionality of mature leaves) late Powdery Mildew infection is often of little consequence. This is not a hard and fast rule though. If disease pressure is high and you are in doubt of what to do, you should always consult your local adviser.

The aim of a late Powdery Mildew spray may be to reduce the number of overwintering spore-forming structures to a low level for next season. If the incidence of Powdery Mildew is particularly high, and fungicides other than sulphur forms are being considered, the use of single-site mode of action fungicides should be avoided, to reduce the potential for the development of fungicide resistance. Again, your local advisor will be able to advise you on the best options.

Young grapevines can be greatly impacted by Powdery Mildew if control of this disease is not maintained during the post-harvest period. Powdery Mildew infection in young vines can significantly impact on the accumulation of carbohydrates and minerals and cause the vines to fail to ‘harden-off’ - making them more susceptible to winter chill. It is also important to prevent Powdery Mildew from establishing in the buds of young grapevines and creating a recurring problem for seasons to come, associated with self-infecting ‘flag’ shoots. Maintaining low levels of the disease in young grapevines will minimise the potential for this disease from establishing in the first place.

Vine Talk is compiled by Dave Antrobus, Syngenta Solutions Development Lead dave.antrobus@syngenta.com 0429 133 436 36 Grapegrower & Winemaker

year in the early 1950s to 0.8kg of tea and 2.4kg of coffee by the late 1990s.)

A mining boom at home and spikes in energy raw material and food prices internationally in 1973-74 and again in 1979-80 reduced the competitiveness of Australia’s producers of other tradables including wine. Wine exports remained flat from the mid-1960s to mid-1980s, wine exports to the UK shrunk by nine-tenths, and the value of wine imports exceeded that of exports during 1973-86. Grape and wine prices also remained low, particularly for reds.

Reforms of liquor licencing laws for restaurants and hotels, and the Trade Practices Act of 1974, made retail price fixing illegal and stimulated the emergence of liquor chain stores and wine discounting.

This period also saw the commercial development of the 2-4 litre cask, or ‘wine-in-a-box’, which added hugely to domestic demand at the lower end of the market. Between 1978 and 1984 the volume of white wine sold in Australia in a plastic bag inside a box rose from 33 to 152ML per year, while bottled red and white wine sales fell by one-quarter, from 73 to 55ML. Neither of the surges in production in the two decades to the mid-1980s, of first red and then white table wines, was export-driven. The industry continued to be internationally uncompetitive and dependent on protective import restrictions on dried vine fruit, wine and brandy.

In 1984 the Government introduced a 10 per cent wholesale sales tax on wine, and raised it to 20 per cent two years later.

That, plus the perceived over-supply situation especially in reds in the mid-1980s, meant the prospects for grapegrowers and winemakers looked bleak. It seemed inconceivable to many observers at that time that another boom was about to begin, so the South Australian and Federal governments co-financed a vine-pull scheme in 1985-86.

FEATURES OF THE LATEST BOOM The most-recent boom began in 1986 with a steady increase in exports to take advantage of the historically low value of the Australian dollar, which was due to a sharp fall in prices of Australia’s coal, grain and other primary export products.

The export expansion was so large as to raise wine’s share of total merchandise exports above the 0.9% record set in 1932, peaking in 2004 at 2.3%, just as mineral exports were taking off.

The wholesale value of Australian wine sales doubled between 1984-86 and 1992-94, and both the domestic consumer price and the export price of Australian wine grew by around 50% over that period. Those price changes stimulated vine plantings, wine production and wine exports, and slowed the growth in domestic sales of Australian wine (as did another increase in the wholesale sales tax on wine from 1993).

Grapegrowers were the main beneficiaries of the initial increase in Australian wine prices. The average price received for winegrapes was three times higher in 1999 than at the start of that decade, even though the export price rose only 60% (Figure 1).

While this fifth boom was largely market-driven, it was also influenced by changes in government interventions. The steady reduction in manufacturing protection and in assistance to some other agricultural industries, that began in 1972 and accelerated through the 1980s and 1990s, paralleled and thus offset the reductions in nominal rates of assistance to grape and wine producers.

The imposition from 1984 of the wholesale sales tax on wine dampened domestic sales but encouraged exporting, while the government’s vine-pull scheme in the mid-1980s led to the loss of some valuable old vines but the replacement of others with more-profitable varieties.

By way of consolation for raising the wholesale sales tax

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Australian exporters began to face increasing competition just as the historically low value of the Australian dollar began its unprecedented 12year rise after 2001. again in 1993, the government assisted new plantings of vines by providing for accelerated depreciation of vineyard construction costs, which contributed to the trebling of the vineyard area during the most-recent boom.

That huge expansion in vineyard plantings inevitably led to a surge in winegrape production three or so years later. Stocks of wine ready for sale trebled in the ten years to 2005.

Meanwhile, as mooted by Smart (1994), several New World suppliers began to emulate the Australian export-led experience, leading to a growth spurt in their wine exports just a few years behind Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. As well, several Old World suppliers and Argentina and Chile were expanding their exports because of rapidly declining domestic consumption.

Thus Australian exporters began to face increasing competition just as the historically low value of the Australian dollar began its unprecedented 12-year rise (of 75% in tradeweighted real terms) after 2001.

The AUD appreciation contributed greatly to the subsequent decline in the AUD price of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wine exports. So while the volume of those exports continued to expand each year until 2007 before stabilizing, their value plummeted as the AUD continued to rise in the wake of the massive mining investment boom (Figure 1).

May 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 616

The decline in wine export prices saw a parallel (and hence proportionately larger) decline in winegrape prices after 2001, yet the bearing area of grapes continued to rise for another seven years. By 2011 the average winegrape price had returned to the same nominal level as in 1989 (Figure 1).

Domestic consumers benefitted from these developments: the retail price index for wine grew far less than the overall consumer price index every year of the past ten. That was despite the increased consumption of higher-priced imported wines, which grew dramatically from the turn of the century thanks to the AUD appreciation (from 3% to 15% in volume and from 5% to 20% in value of domestic sales).

A direct consequence of the wine and grape price collapse was that both vineyard and winery asset prices plummeted after 2007, with some vineyards selling for no more than unimproved land value. The collapse in asset values was partly because banks lost interest in financing the industry, and partly because listed corporations sought to shed their leastproductive vineyard and winery assets to boost the rates of reported return on their remaining capital.

WAS THE OPTIMISM AT THE START OF THE LATEST BOOM WARRANTED? The latest boom differs from the earlier booms in several important respects that justified new optimism. First, it was overwhelmingly export-oriented, in contrast with the first and fourth booms. Second, it was mostly market-driven, in contrast to the third (inter-war) boom that evaporated once government export assistance measures were withdrawn. Third, the quality of wine output improved hugely relative to the cost of production and its price. Fourth, the aging of the population and the rapid growth in incomes in high and middle-income countries, at

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37

grapegrowing

Getting that message across in not only Australia’s traditional markets but also in Asia will require a larger budget than AGWA’s predecessor organisations have had in the past. least up to the 2008 financial crisis, was boosting demand, as was the global spread of wine supermarketing.

As well, those contemplating new investments in Australia’s wine industry at the end of the 20th century could be excused for not anticipating the rapidity with which other New World suppliers copied Australia’s export-led growth model. Nor could those investors have anticipated the combination of an unprecedented 12-year rise from 2001 in the value of the AUD, the global financial crisis from 2008 which reduced wine demand and weakened the US dollar, Euro and Pound Sterling, and a long and widespread drought that stimulated major policy reforms affecting irrigation water availability and pricing.

HOW EXCEPTIONAL WAS THE LATEST EXPORT GROWTH SPURT?

Certainly the latest boom raised the annual volume and value of wine exports and the share of wine production exported to levels far exceeding previous Australian records (Figure 4), and the length of this boom (21 years) is 50% longer than the first export boom in the late 19th century globalisation wave and twice as long as the inter-war boom.

However, compared with wine export growth of other countries, the boom is not particularly exceptional. All other New World wine-producing countries grew the US$ value of their wine exports faster than Australia in the first decade of this century, and they have been converging rapidly on Australia since 2008.

Together these trends mean that Australia’s comparative advantage in wine has slipped substantially since the start of the new millennium. This is indicated by the share of wine in national merchandise exports divided by wine’s share of global exports. For Australia, that index peaked at 15 in 2003 (when it was exceeded only by Moldova and Georgia) before falling to only one-quarter of that by 2013. By that indicator, Australia is now also below New Zealand, Chile, France, Portugal, Italy and Spain.

CAN INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY REFORMS RE-BOOT GROWTH? Recovery from the Australian wine industry’s immediate difficulties won’t be easy, and may not be as quick as the resurgence from the slump preceding the export-led take-off in the mid-1980s, as major adjustments will be required by many participants. However, the latest boom was not triggered by export subsidies, unlike the inter-war export boom, nor by a surge in domestic demand as in the previous boom.

To the extent there is a willingness to continue to invest for the long term (rather than just focusing on quarterly returns to shareholders), and if the earlier spirit of collaboration and unity within the industry can be re-invigorated, a return to at least normal levels of profitability should be possible before long. But it will depend on rebuilding competitiveness in export markets, because growth in domestic sales will be sluggish (slowing income and population growth, anti-alcohol lobbying) even if there is some displacement of imports.

One adjustment already under way is in export marketing.

The earlier emphasis in generic marketing on ‘Brand Australia’,

38 Grapegrower & Winemaker

of providing sunshine in a bottle, has switched to a marketing strategy that places far more emphasis on higher-quality wines and exploits the scope to differentiate through building regional, varietal and style reputations.

An even stronger focus on promoting the country’s fine wine offering will be needed going forward, given the increasing competition from lower-wage Southern Hemisphere countries in the popular premium category. Chile may have already surpassed Australia in offering the world the best value wine in that category, so the emphasis needs to switch to make the world aware Australia also offers excellent value for money with its finer wines.

Getting that message across in not only Australia’s traditional markets but also in Asia will require a larger budget than AGWA’s predecessor organisations have had in the past, which were trivial relative to the value of national production and the extent of expenditure by European competitors. In 2011-12, for example, Australia’s expenditure on generic promotion was barely 0.7 cents per litre of wine produced. That same year, Bordeaux alone spent 3.3 cents per litre. The European Union supplements regional and national promotion expenditures of its member states, and during 2009-13 it provided 522 million Euros for wine promotion, the equivalent to 0.6 Australian cents per litre of EU wine produced. Moreover, that EU promotion expenditure is to be raised to 1156 million Euros for the period 2014-18 (European Court of Auditors 2014). That is around 1.3 cents per litre, or double the rate recently spent in Australia – and that is just the supplement from Brussels, which adds to what will be spent by national governments and EU wine regions themselves.

As for R&D, less than 1% of the value of grape and wine production has been invested in R&D in the past, despite the returns from such investments being very high. Returns in the next two decades are likely to be even higher, bearing in mind rapid marketplace changes (the need to produce better quality rather than quantity of grapes and wine) and longterm uncertainties such as climate change, water and other environmental policy reforms. Of course it is difficult to reach agreement to raise the R&D levy on producers, especially when profits are low, but Australia will struggle to keep at the technological frontier without doing so.

Wine consumer tax policy reform could contribute to the transition to higher-quality wine production. If Australia were to switch from an ad valorem to a volumetric tax, that would encourage the transition to finer wines while weakening the case by anti-alcohol lobbies and the beer and spirits producers for a higher rate of tax on wine. Such a switch would make it easier for small fine-wine producers to sell all their production on the domestic market, thereby avoiding the high fixed costs of breaking into new export markets. There is the risk that any change to the method of taxing wine consumers will be accompanied by a hike in the rate of taxation, but that could need to be countered by strengthening the argument that, since moderate wine consumption can have positive health and social externalities, its tax rate should be below that on other alcohols.

REFERENCES

Anderson, K. (with the assistance of N.R. Aryal) (2015), Growth and Cycles in Australia’s Wine Industry: A Statistical Compendium, 1843 to 2013, Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press. Freely downloadable at www.adelaide.edu.au/press/ titles/austwine European Court of Auditors (2014), ‘Is the EU Investment and Promotion Support to the Wine Sector Well Managed and Are its Results on the Competitiveness of EU Wines Demonstrated?’ Special Report No. 9, Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union.

Smart, R. (1994), ‘Australia’s Competitive Advantages in Wine Exports: What Are They?’, Australian and New Zealand Wine industry Journal 9(2): 118-19, May.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

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The relative sustainability of organic, biodynamic and conventional viticulture Part 1: Soil health This article is the first of a two-part look at recent research carried out to establish what impact different viticulture techniques have on the impact of soil health, vine health and wine characteristics. principal researchers were Christopher Penfold, Luke Johnston, Professor Petra Marschner and Associate Professor Susan Bastian, the project supervisor was Cassandra Collins, all from the University of Adelaide. Organic and biodynamic viticulture is forecast to grow at more than 11 per cent each year, yet there is little information on the benefits or otherwise that can be attributed to these systems of grape production.

With industry funding, a six-year trial at McLaren Vale in South Australia investigated the changes in soil health, fruit production and wine quality. The trial results showed that organic and biodynamic production led to improved soil quality, with more soil organisms including much greater earthworm populations. Wine quality was also improved, but in the absence of price premiums, this was achieved at a financial penalty to the grower through reduced yields and increased production costs.

VITICULTURAL production systems in Australia are constantly evolving, but steadily maturing as managers determine the best mechanisms for attaining sustainability. In part this is being driven by a recognised need to improve the soil, reduce pesticide use and enhance

vineyard biodiversity, which are all promoted as best practice vineyard management. In conjunction with this desire to improve the biophysical management component is the need to remain financially viable.

An understanding of the market

requirements for the fruit will also determine management practice. To determine the comparative sustainability of organic (ORG), biodynamic (BD), low (LCON) and high input conventional (HCON) viticultural systems, a large field trial was initiated in 2008.

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40 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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May 2015 – Issue 616

In Australia, organic and biodynamic vineyard certification is conducted over a three-year conversion period. However, little is known about the changes that occur during this time. The aim of this study was to assess soil parameters, vine performance, berry composition and wine quality of different management systems during the conversion period. In 2008, a 20 year-old, Cabernet Sauvignon (Vitis vinifera L.) vineyard located in McLaren Vale, Australia was converted to an experimental trial assessing four management systems: organic (ORG), biodynamic (BD), low-input conventional (LCON) and high-input conventional (HCON). A compost treatment was also added to each of the management systems studied to separate compost effects.

ORGANIC & BIODYNAMIC BASICS Organic and biodynamic standards prohibit the use of synthetic fertilisers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides in the vineyard (AQIS 2013). Organic/ biodynamic growers are permitted to use wettable sulphur and copper hydroxide (<8 kg ha-1 p.a.) in the vineyard (AQIS 2013), and hence in the warm and dry regions of Australia, conventional and organic growers share similar disease management programs. Therefore, one of greatest differences between organic/ biodynamic and conventional viticulture management in Australia, is under-vine weed control. Conventional growers generally use herbicides, while organic/ biodynamic growers either cultivate (using a knife, plough or disk) or slash the under-vine area (Bekkers 2012, Marshall 2012). Certification for these management systems is granted once growers use these practices for three seasons, known as the conversion period. However, it is not established what effects these systems have on soil, vine, grape and wine parameters over this period of time.

Biodynamic viticulture is difficult to define as it may vary from grower to grower, depending on one’s beliefs and adoption. However, biodynamic growers are bound to the same restrictions as organic growers. In addition, biodynamic growers use a variety of preparations (Preparations 500-508) as outlined by Rudolf Steiner in his lectures in 1924 (Steiner 1993). In Australia, certified biodynamic growers are required to apply preparation 500 and compost preparations at least once per year (AQIS 2013). However it is recommended that growers use it 2-4 times per season (Biodynamic Agriculture Australia 2015).

While the benefits of these preparations are often purported by biodynamic advocates, their mode of action and significance remains unclear (CarpenterMay 2015 – Issue 616

Boggs et al. 2000, Reeve et al. 2005).

In this trial the main difference between ORG and BD was the application of biodynamic preparations (500-508).

Preparation 500 is derived from cow manure while preparation 501 is from silica. They are both buried in cow corns over the winter and summer months respectively. The biodynamic preparations are not fertilisers, but are claimed to stimulate nutrient cycling and improve plant photosynthesis (Koepf et al. 1990). 500 and cow pat pit (a combination of 502-507) was sprayed between 2-4 times each season, 501 was applied the following day. The ORG system was sprayed with compost teas in 2008/09 as an additional foliar spray, however were discontinued thereafter due to uncertainty as to their benefits.

Sulphur was the principle fungicide applied on all treatments, with copper used as required and additional synthetic fungicides in high disease prone seasons on the HCON system.

THE RESULTS During the first two seasons, management system had no consistent effect on parameters measured. However, in the third season, ORG and BD treatments had lower shoot length, pruning weight, canopy density, yield, bunch and berry weight compared to LCON and HCON. No significant differences were found with total soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, yeast available nitrogen between management systems. Total anthocyanin and phenolic levels in berries were inconsistent between treatments and seasons. No differences in wine quality were observed between management treatments in the 2009/10 season however, in 2010/11 ORG and in particular BD wines were described as being more rich, textural, complex and vibrant than LCON and HCON wines.

Initially the trial was intended to determine the impacts of a changed management regime on soil quality, vine performance and wine quality over the three-year conversion period to an organic system. Monitoring the change in soil and vine parameters over this period showed no differences in the first two years. In the third year changes in vine growth generated improved sensory attributes in the ORG and BD wine.

Soil chemistry showed little change between treatments over the trial period.

The vines were growing in soil that was inherently fertile, and they have low extraction rates for nutrients. The addition of compost to a row within each replicate was used to determine its role in improving soil characteristics and productivity. The lack of response in vine www.winebiz.com.au

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41

grapegrowing Table 5.2 Vineyard management strategies for organic, biodynamic, low-input conventional and high-input conventional treatments from 2008-2011, McLaren Vale, Australia.

Treatments Organic

Biodynamic

Low-input conventional

High-input conventional

Mid-row management

Mown resident vegetation

Mown resident vegetation

Mown resident vegetation

Mown resident vegetation

Undervine management

Mowing and/or cultivation

Mowing and/or cultivation

Glyphosate and oxyflurofen in spring

Glyphosate/ oxyfluorfen/ pendimethalin in spring

Disease management

Wettable sulphur, Copper cuprous oxide

Wettable sulphur, Copper cuprous oxide

Wettable sulphur, Copper cuprous oxide

Wettable sulphur, Copper cuprous oxide, trifloxystrobin Myclobutanil 21 g ha-1 in January 2011

Insect management

None

None

None

emamectin benzoate

Other

seaweed extract

seaweed extract BD 500, 501

seaweed extract

seaweed extract

growth to compost addition confirmed that nutrition was not a limiting factor in vine production.

Soil biological properties (microbial biomass carbon, respiration, earthworm numbers and biomass) as measured in the under-vine zone, were higher on the ORG and BD, most likely due to the soil organism’s nutritional requirements being supplied by the plant growth that was maintained rather than removed with herbicides.

The application of compost had desirable impacts on soil quality, increasing total organic carbon (TOC), microbial biomass carbon (MBC), pH, electrical conductivity (EC) and phosphorous (P) levels. Vines on the HCON treatment showed higher petiole concentrations of boron (B), with P and sulphur (S) higher on LCON and HCON.

SOIL ANALYSIS The soil parameters measured in this study (N, P, Organic C, Microbial Biomass C and Cumulative Respiration) was more strongly affected by compost than by management system. Irrespective of management system, compost increased soil microbial activity, and nutrient availability. Only in the absence of compost, ORG and BD management

systems increased cumulative respiration compared with LCON and HCON. This was due to under-vine weeds providing available substrate for microbes to metabolise and subsequently respire.

Without compost, cumulative respiration was higher in ORG and BD than in LCON and HCON at PH09 and BB10. There were no differences in cumulative respiration between BD and ORG. Management system did not affect soil organic C content, however, compost increased soil organic C from 1.9% to 2.3% (average of all sampling times and treatments).

In the absence of compost, ORG and BD management systems did not affect soil organic C, available N, P or MBC over the three year trial period. However, cumulative respiration was higher in ORG and BD at PH09 and BB10 compared with LCON and HCON whereas there were no differences among management systems at BB09 or PH10.

In this study, LCON and HCON received two herbicide applications in spring and one in autumn, hence the under-vine area remained free of weed growth during the growing season. On the other hand, in the ORG and BD systems, weeds in the under-vine area were allowed to grow over winter and

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slashed after soil sampling at BB09 and PH09. Weeds were cultivated in January 2011, three months prior to PH10 sampling. Although weeds were present in the ORG and BD systems at BB09, there were no differences in cumulative respiration between management systems. This may be due to treatments having only been applied for 12 months, and hence insufficient weed biomass being produced.

Without compost addition, the management systems did not differ in soil organic C. This suggests that although the weeds in the organic systems increase microbial activity, their C input is not sufficient to increase soil organic C concentrations over a threeyear period.

The final three years of the trial showed organic and biodynamic production led to improved soil quality, with more organic carbon and soil organisms including much greater earthworm populations.

Wine quality was also improved, but in the absence of price premiums, this was achieved at a financial penalty to the grower through reduced yields and increased production costs. Available soil nitrogen at the 0-10 cm depth was not impacted by treatment, while available phosphorous was higher on the LCON

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May 2015 – Issue 616

COLLECTION: Earthworm samples being taken in 2013.

and HCON in the first year, but this had reversed by the final year when the BD system was higher than LCON and HCON. The microbial biomass carbon and respiration were also higher on the ORG and BD systems. Total organic carbon, microbial biomass carbon, soil pH and EC were higher where compost was applied. At the 10-20 cm depth, microbial biomass carbon, total organic carbon and phosphorous (2013) were higher on BD, while the application of compost increased phosphorous and carbon levels. Soil chemical residue analysis revealed detectable levels (0.29 mg/kg) of aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA) on the HCON system. AMPA is the principal degradation product of glyphosate.

Vine nutrient uptake, determined using petiole analysis, showed boron was higher on HCON and phosphorous and sulphur on LCON and HCON. Compost application increased the concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, sulphur and zinc.

Average annual Microbial Biomass Carbon (MBC) readings ranged from 52 to 175 mg C/kg in the 0-10 cm profile over the three years. Higher MBC levels found at 0-10 cm on the ORG and BD were expected, given the sensitivity of this measure to changes in soil management. While differences were also apparent at the 10-20 cm depth, they were small and inconsequential.

Within this project, as a comparison of management systems where neither sampling nor analytical technique varied, the outcomes again showed the improved soil health achievable both from the addition of compost under-vine and not using herbicides regularly for weed control.

No detriment was noted in vine function on the LCON and HCON treatments where herbicide was applied, indicating again the robust nature of the Vitis genus to growing in many different soil environments, most of which would not be recognised as ideal growing mediums.

Microbial respiration results again reflect the improved capacity for soil microbes to function in the ORG and BD viticultural systems when compared to LCON and HCON systems.

Resource constraints limited moisture monitoring to the ORG and HCON systems only. The ORG system showed higher soil moisture tension in the pre-flowering period compared to HCON at 20 and 70 centimetres. By veraison there were no treatment differences. Compost addition under-vine provided lower soil moisture tension compared to no compost but only at the 20 cm depth, which was the zone where the compost was incorporated during the under-vine weeding process.

The ORG and BD systems generated more earthworms with May 2015 – Issue 616

a greater biomass than both the LCON and HCON systems.

The application of compost was not influential to either their populations or biomass production.

According to Law (2011) earthworm counts above 25 per square metre suggest very good soil quality, a figure which was exceeded in all treatments over both years, but with a nine-fold increase on the ORG and BD systems, which had an average of 230/m2 over the two years of measurement.

On the ORG and BD systems, tillage was used for weed control in late winter/early spring. Tillage with a mouldboard plough (silly plough) is performed at slow groundspeed and is a process of soil inversion rather than more aggressive stirring. As such it is unlikely to cause physical damage to the earthworms. The delayed weed control allowed plant growth undervine to occur over the winter period. Observation showed the earthworms congregating within the fibrous grass roots, presumably feeding on sloughed roots, detritus and rhizosphere nutrients. By comparison, the weed-free under-vine zone of the conventional treatments did not provide the habitat to support a healthy earthworm population.

This finding is important when the intention is to improve soil quality in vineyards. While regular herbicide application to the under-vine zone is effective in preventing weed growth, it does potentially compromise soil quality including soil hardness, one of the likely criteria for soil health determination.

The benefits that earthworms may provide for improving water infiltration is recogniaed by Lal (1995), thus reducing the need for additional inputs to develop a porous soil.

DISCUSSION A principle difference often found in vineyard floor management between ORG/BD and CON systems is the use of

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grapegrowing Despite the widespread interest in organic and biodynamic grape and wine production, there was a paucity of scientific information to support or otherwise the claims of improved soil, grape and wine quality coming from those systems. tillage vs herbicides for weed control in the under-vine zone. (Guerra 2012) notes there are advantages in tillage such as improved water infiltration and reduced chemical use, but in the long term it may also lead to soil compaction, loss of structure, reduced fertility.

By comparison, they note the benefits in herbicides being their low cost and ease of use, but weed resistance to herbicides, toxicity to the vines and the operator and the leaching of residues, soil compaction and decreased soil fertility were noted as undesirable consequences of herbicide use.

The impact of tillage extends beyond the physical and chemical parameters noted above to invertebrates, many of which provide notable benefits to the soil. For example, ants are widely used as an indicator of ecosystem functioning, as they can affect pest control, soil processes and plant growth. Other beneficial ground dwelling invertebrate groups include spiders (Araneae), rove beetles (Staphylinidae), and ground beetles (Carabidae) (Sharley 2005).

Sharley (2008) investigated the effects of soil tillage on beneficial invertebrate populations habituating the vineyard mid-row. Tillage also adversely affected the population of beneficial wasps in the canopy, including Trichogramma, possibly by removal of their food source of floral nectar. It is possible that tillage of the undervine area, as generally required in organic viticulture, will also impact on invertebrate populations. Herbicides also remove the food source for invertebrates, so the relative impact of these very different under-vine management tools on arthropods required investigation within the project.

At what cost though are the growers paying to produce organic wine? Yields are generally recognised as being less than conventionally produced grapes (MalusĂ et al. 2004). Wheeler and Crisp (2009) used a commercial Clare Valley vineyard running parallel production of organic and conventional grapes. They found a 10% overall reduction in organic yields, but in the red wines this was in part compensated by an improvement in quality. Madge (2005) in a grower survey found the yield of organic grapes to be in the range of 6.5-14.2 t/ha, while conventional yields were from 9.1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 25.3

44 Grapegrower & Winemaker

t/ha. Santiago (2010) in a survey of 23 growers noted a general yield reduction of 8.6%, but qualified the variability that was apparent was due to the amount of time since conversion and the scale of operations.

One of the reasons for growers to convert to organic viticulture is economic, where they expect to be able to obtain a premium price for their fruit and/or decrease the cost of production.

To address the dearth of credible information available on the cost of production between biodynamic and conventional viticultural production, Santiago (2010) undertook a survey of ORG and BD growers to determine their cost structures and production outputs.

The survey results showed an overall 24% increase in costs for ORG and 7% for BD growers. Canopy management costs reduced by 27 and 75% for ORG and BD growers respectively. Undervine management costs were 76 (ORG) and 222% (BD) higher than conventional vineyards however, but this varied considerably due to the scale of the operations.

The case study of Wheeler and Crisp (2009) showed a cost penalty of about 20%, which coupled with yield reduction means price premiums will be required to compare favourably with conventional gross margins. As noted by Madge (2005) the costs of production varied from 15% lower to 47% higher in organic systems. With generally lower yields, the pruning and harvesting costs per tonne of grapes are considerably more for ORG/ BD vineyards.

The production of winegrapes and wine is generally recognised as one of the forms of primary production best suited to organic production. This is because winegrapes are a relatively hardy crop which also has a low nutrient requirement. Disease control uses the staple fungicides of sulphur and copper, with alternatives such as potassium bicarbonate and some milk by-products now also available. Weed control can be managed using grazing, mowing and cultivation. Each of these practices is not foreign to conventional producers, making conversion to an organic production system less onerous than many other high input crops. While the allowable inputs to organic wine are less www.winebiz.com.au

than conventional producers have access to, wines of very high quality made by both large and small producers are readily available at price points suited to most consumers.

Recently, organic and biodynamic viticultural practices have received much attention, especially by premium grape growers worldwide (Goode and Harrop 2011). Between 2007 and 2009, the number of hectares of vineyard certified organic around the world doubled (Willer and Kilcher 2011). In Europe, there are almost 167,000ha of certified organic grapevines, while in the United States of America, it accounts for over 11,000ha of production (Willer and Kilcher 2011).

This growth is coupled by a demand for organic and alternative methods of agriculture due to increasing consumer concern regarding food quality and safety (Magkos et al. 2006).

Despite the widespread interest in organic and biodynamic grape and wine production, there was a paucity of scientific information to support or otherwise the claims of improved soil, grape and wine quality coming from those systems.

Past research comparing organic/ biodynamic viticulture practices with conventional have primarily focused on soil properties (Gehlen et al. 1988, Okur et al. 2009, Probst et al. 2008, Reinecke et al. 2008, Stamatiadis et al. 1996). These studies found significant improvements in soil physical, chemical and biological properties when organic/biodynamic management strategies were used in the vineyard. However, in these trials, organic treatments used compost, while the conventional did not use any organic amendments. Compost is well-known to improve soil properties (Pinamonti 1998) with many practitioners now applying it to their vineyards; regardless of whether they are managing their vineyard organically or conventionally.

CONCLUSION Winegrape production is one of the easiest forms of primary production to manage organically or biodynamically, but as often occurs, the achievable yields are less than a conventional system. This project has reinforced this notion, but has also shown there are considerable benefits to the broader ecosystem associated with ORG and BD production, such as improvements in soil quality. Growers wishing to adopt systems involving lower chemical inputs therefore have the choice of either improving on their conventional management practices to improve soil quality or use the ORG or BD system but recognise that yields and income may be reduced.

May 2015 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Issue 616

Australian SMEs hold their own amid consolidation SIZE matters – and in business, scale matters. Scale often brings lower overheads and reduces the cost of production, which allows firms to improve their profit margins and expand operations. Although this is often a recipe for success, some businesses tend to flourish with smaller scale operations.

IBISWorld’s business information analysts have identified the top industries in which Australian small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) thrive. IBISWorld defines SMEs as companies that generate annual revenue of between $750,000 and $25.0 million, and employ fewer than 50 staff.

“Dental services, wine production, road freight transport, specialist medical services and restaurants are some of the industries where consolidation and traditional bolt-on acquisitions do not necessarily improve profit margins,” said Andrei Ivanov, IBISWorld senior industry analyst.

Despite the maturity of most of these industries, they are generally characterised by low market share concentration and low to medium barriers to entry. SMEs typically thrive in industries that have low market share concentrations, as this means there are few major players occupying the industry.

HIGH VARIABLE COSTS For service-based industries, where wages are the dominant expense and tend to be higher than other industries, the cost of additional employees (in terms of profit margins) does not decline with a greater headcount. This trend contrasts with nonservice industries, where automated production processes can reduce the costs of additional employees and allow companies to benefit from economies of scale.

“For service-based businesses to increase the size of their operations, they need to hire proportionally more staff to provide the necessary service,” said Ivanov. “Therefore, there is limited scope for operators in the dental services and specialist medical services industries, for example, to benefit from scale.”

Services such as accounting, human resources, recruitment and payroll administration are among the most common functions outsourced by SMEs. For example, wine producers may outsource distribution, minimising the need for vehicles and transport operators, while some restaurants may outsource areas of food production, purchasing ready-made items.

WINE INDSUTRY ANALYSIS Difficult trading conditions have plagued the wine production industry across the past five years. Volatile economies in key export markets, a soaring Australian dollar for much of the period and rising competition from overseas low-cost wine producers have hurt wine exports. In the domestic market, producers have lost bargaining power to retailers and been forced to contend with changing consumer preferences.

Additionally, an oversupply of wine grapes – and the resulting oversupply of wine – has pushed prices downwards, squeezing margins and forcing many producers out of business.

The industry is expected to be in the mature phase of its life cycle. IBISWorld estimates that in the 10 years through 2019-20, industry value added (a measure of the industry’s contribution to the economy) will increase at an annualised 2.5%. In comparison, GDP is forecast to increase an annualised 2.7% over the same period. The industry’s lower growth over the period is largely attributable to its ongoing recovery from weakened export demand and an oversupply of grapes.

IBISWorld expects wine supply and demand to rebalance over the next five years and value added growth to move closer in line with general economic growth.

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The core reason for the number of SMEs operating in this industry relates to the ownership structure of wineries.

“Smaller scale wineries are often family owned and operated, with many families unwilling to sell their businesses to larger companies that may be seeking to consolidate operations,” said Ivanov. This trend is common across a number of agricultural industries with a large degree of family ownership.

“In addition, the reputation of local wine brands and varieties is crucial for producers, which further limits the scope for larger firms to consolidate and expand volumes.”

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With limited scale, SMEs often rely on outside support for back-end operations. Since there is little opportunity to spread overhead costs across a range of products, these industries tend to cut these costs by outsourcing non-core business processes.

“Provided this does not undermine the quality of the product or service, outsourcing makes economic sense and reduces the risks of fixed costs blowing out, whereas blue chip companies often have the size and scope to complete these processes in-house,” said Ivanov. “By spending less time on non-core operations, managers can focus more on strategy and growth.”

May 2015 – Issue 616

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ask the

Unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) and viticulture DRONES look really fun to operate, but once you get past ‘that looks really cool’ and ‘I want one’, you need to answer the far more important question: ‘What can I do with them to add value to my business?’

Drones (or UAVs) come in a wide range of shapes and sizes.

In a consumer context they range from small ‘toys’ designed to be flown in your living room, through to large petrol driven units that can carry substantial payloads. In viticulture, the largest units can be used for pesticide application, but the most common applications centre on vineyard monitoring. Flight times also vary – most battery-powered rotory-wing UAVs (Figure 1) have a flight time of 15-30 minutes, while fixed-wing UAVs can fly for up to two hours.

HOW CAN DRONES BE USED IN VITICULTURE? UAVs normally fly closer to the ground than conventional light aircraft and are configured to take a series of photos at predetermined points or time intervals across a vineyard. These photos are then ‘stitched’ together to make a single very high resolution image. The detailed image can then be used to assess missing vines or frost damage (Figure 2). While the images are impressive, if assessments are only needed occasionally it may be easier and less expensive to conduct them manually on the ground.

Plant cell density ‘vigour maps’ have traditionally been collected using light aircraft (or possibly satellites) operated by consulting companies; however UAVs can also be used to take these images. The cameras mounted in light aircraft

acquire images at very precise wavelengths and high resolution.

Miniature versions are available and operators can also modify normal compact or action cameras to take similar images.

However, even when miniature or modified cameras are used, more than one camera may be needed to collect the wavelengths required for a ‘vigour map’. Depending on the capacity of the UAV, this can require the vineyard to be ‘flown’ twice (once with each camera) in order to collect sufficient information.

Operators would also need to be able to process the data collected into a usable map, which is not straightforward. At this stage, both the costs involved and the complexities of data processing may mean that it is more effective to use a service operated by consultants for vigour mapping rather than trying to go it alone with a UAV. The most promising potential application for UAVs is for the assessment of water stress. This is normally done using a thermal camera and while the techniques are still being refined, generally the hotter the vine the more stressed it is.

Traditionally thermal cameras were large and bulky, but more refined models continue to be developed. Regular, weekly flights to assess water stress or highlight sections of the vineyard that need to be checked lend themselves to using a UAV (compared to a light aircraft). An ideal UAV system would be permanently installed at a vineyard and then fly to collect imagery from different sections of the site during optimal conditions. Images would be uploaded and processed automatically giving the vineyard manager a fresh set of maps on their smart phone at 7am the next day. There are a number of companies currently working to develop this type of automated solution.

CAN I FLY A UAV IN MY VINEYARD NOW?

Figure 1. Flight path for a rotor UAV being programmed in the vineyard using a mobile phone.

The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) requires anyone operating a UAV for commercial purposes (which includes use of UAVs in a vineyard operation) to have an ‘operator’s certificate’. Changes to these regulations have been proposed which are likely to allow small UAVs (less than 2kg) to be flown commercially without a licence. There are other regulations governing flying during daylight hours, maintaining a line of sight to the UAV and altitude limits, as well as restrictions on using UAVs near airports, crowds and in built-up areas.

SO WHAT IS THE ‘SHORT ANSWER’?

In the short term UAVs are most likely to be used by researchers; or consultants who can provide processed maps as a service to vineyard managers. They offer flexibility for small areas and opportunities for regular monitoring that are difficult to achieve with light aircraft. As the technology matures ‘turnkey’ solutions are likely to be developed that are more attractive for direct purchase by vineyard managers.

The AWRI thanks the University of New England for contributing the images and other content to this article.

Figure 2. High resolution vineyard image; note the missing vines at the start of the third row of the block on the left.

May 2015 – Issue 616

For more information on the use of UAVs in viticulture, please contact the AWRI helpdesk P: 08 8313 6600 E: helpdesk@awri.com.au.

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Grapegrower & Winemaker

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grapegrowing

STRONG ROOTS: Lado Uzunashvili is prepared to share his wealth of Georgian wine industry knowledge here in Australia.

8000 vintages of Georgian grape and wine experience to learn from Lado Uzunashvili is a Georgian winemaker based in Adelaide. But it might be more accurate to call him an Australian citizen and a flying winemaker. Whichever way you look at it, he has incredible insight into the world’s oldest wine producing nation. And he is keen to see the Australian wine industry benefit from Georgian viticulture and winemaking knowledge. Nathan Gogoll reports.

WHEN Lado landed in Adelaide in late February he had a whole suitcase packed with warm winter clothes. The only trouble was, it was a sunny 35 degrees when he hopped off the plane.

The clothes he had with him, which he’d packed for the Boston Wine Show (which was cut short by freezing winter conditions and temperatures as low as -28 degrees) were completely inappropriate.

While the Boston show was short, Lado said it was sweet.

“There was lots of interest in Georgian wine, because of the story and the history of the wine industry in Georgia,” he said.

And he hopes this interest will be replicated in Australia.

His quick trip ‘home’ to Adelaide during vintage season coincided with his youngest son’s decision to transfer his tertiary education to the Oenology/Viticulture course at the University of Adelaide.

“He will be the next in the line of 16 generations of winemakers in my family, from the dawn of the 19th century,” Lado boasted, clearly very proud of his son’s decision.

Apart from celebrating this news, a big item on Lado’s agenda was to begin his quest to take Saperavi from Australia back to

48 Grapegrower & Winemaker

its homeland, because it turns out the clone that exists here is no longer prevalent in Georgia.

This story of what Lado calls “the most pure clone of Saperavi” has been shaped by the homeland’s relationship with its neighbour, Russia, which has ‘annexed’ Georgia several times across the past 200 years and brought changes to vineyard techniques and even widespread vineyard removal and cuts to production during times of occupation.

It turns out Saperavi, the black grape with dark red flesh, left Georgia when people immigrated to the US. The variety ended up being propagated in Virginia, where Lado said the climate and soils weren’t ideal, before it made its way to Australia and has been planted throughout several regions.

Georgia is recognised to be the source of the world’s first cultured and cultivated grapevines, with the viticulture history stretching back at least 8000 years. Which means it will be quite a journey if Lado can fulfil his ambition to get the clone growing in Australia back to Georgia.

“It’s on my agenda as strongly as ever and I will be in contact with a few people soon,” he said. “It will be a good story to take the clone back to Georgia and re-establish it. At home we

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May 2015 – Issue 616

don’t say ‘set up’ a vineyard, we say ‘build’ a new vineyard and that’s what I’d like to do. The clone here in Australia came from Mukuzani, where I do my winemaking. It is regarded as the most pure clone of Saperavi.”

The clone actually made its way out of Georgia though connections to Lado’s family. And Lado is responsible for introducing the Patritti and Hugh Hamilton wineries to Saperavi. In the late 1990s and early 2000s Lado was also connected to Robin Day, who grows the Georgian variety in the Barossa.

“I know his vineyards well, I think Robin was one of the first Australian growers and I know the Linke family in Eden Valley had quite a big interest as well.”

Lado also got to taste some Saperavi and have a good chat with Ben Heide at Patritti Wines in February, and he was impressed with both the wine and the winemaker.

“During our conversation I thought Ben was reading my mind,” he said.

DRAWING ON GEORGIAN VINEYARD KNOWLEDGE “Georgian viticulture is now working with 525 varieties and about 45 are commercially grown. There is great history to be drawn up and matched to modern practices and technology,” Lado said.

“In the New World, dense planting is new thinking. But in Georgia it is traditional to plant up to 11,000 vines per hectare.

As long as there was enough room for the horse to walk between the rows. There is some thinking that spur pruning can give growers more control – no, no, no.

“We know from experience with cane pruning, the percentage of mistake is minimal. You can’t always follow what has been done in other regions, while in some cases the French structure is working there are other options to look at for Australian conditions.

“Back in Georgia, one big company forced their Saperavi vines into spur pruning, but Saperavi refused it 100 per cent.

The quality of fruit and the health of the vines, many things that had an influence were better when the vines were cane pruned.

“There is a saying about grapegrowers ‘of those who really love wine, the growers with the least fruit are the happiest’.

You can find the same mentality today in Australia wherever the primary focus, whatever the vinification process, is on the quality of the fruit.”

There is a saying about grapegrowers ‘of those who really love wine, the growers with the least fruit are the happiest’. You can find the same mentality today in Australia wherever the primary focus, whatever the vinification process, is on the quality of the fruit. the techniques known to Georgian winemakers for the past 8000 years. I’m excited to trial winemaking in Australia that can draw on these traditional Georgian methods and to see the resulting wines side-by-side with how they are already being made here in Australia.”

Lado says the current demand for imported wine shows there is a consumer demand for styles and varieties not usually produced here at home.

“Just a few years ago Australia imported only five or six per cent of its total wine consumption, today it is more like one-infour bottles. To take some of that share back we need to make the styles of wine that imports have attracted consumers to.

“We will end up diversifying what we’re doing and diversifying the Australian wine offer as a result.”

QVEVRI, NOT AMPHORA One area Lado is keen to see more discussion is fermenting in clay vessels. He is adamant the current industry adoption of

AND GEORGIAN WINEMAKING EXPERIENCE “Today’s ways of vinification allow you to take the great knowledge of the process, but be flexible in your approach. The traditional Georgian way of doing things offers huge potential to draw on a great history of winemaking, where the techniques have been authentic and untouched,” Lado said.

“If we make these styles of wines here in Australia, I don’t think the resulting wines will be as strange to people’s palates as some people think. But we need proper cultivators of the ideas and the flavours of the wine.”

Here in Australia, Lado said we have plenty of winemakers experimenting with techniques he said have already been refined and perfected in Georgia.

He has seen virtually the same techniques described by Aussie winemakers as either full skin contact, or extended maceration.

As a result, Lado predicts a big future for both Georgian winemaking techniques as well as additional Georgian varieties here in Australia.

“It will be a harder road to match the white wine styles, but I’m sure it will be achievable.”

And he’s ready to help.

“I’ll be looking for proper partners to set up a winery using May 2015 – Issue 616

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49

grapegrowing the term amphora should be replaced with the correct Georgian name, Qvevri (Kvevri).

Amphorae have handles and were traditionally used for transporting wine; Qvevri are larger vessels, fixed in place for wine production – both fermentation and storage.

“Australian winemakers have a big issue with the confusion of amphora, which were for moving wine around, and Qvevri, which are static,” Lado said.

“I think Australia is ready to take delivery of properlymade Qvevri, which are made from the right clay and with the right architecture. You have to be looking at the chemical combinations of the clay you use, even how it is kilned.

"And then you have to match the size and shape to the temperatures of the ferments you are working with. Everything makes a difference and every case needs to be studied.

“In Georgia you find Qvevri up to 15 cubic metres in capacity, but the size needs to be match to the temperature control of the ferment.

“There are excellent Georgian producers of Qvevri and it doesn’t cost that much to get them here.”

GEORGIAN REVOLUTION IN AUSTRALIA “I truly and honestly believe there is going to be a cultural education of the industry. Because at the moment, I think the winemakers are not as ready for this as Australian wine drinkers are,” Lado said.

“But it won’t take long to find the balance, or combination of the traditional Georgian techniques with and Australian-made approach. Research has shown Australians have the most open approach to different wine styles and this tells me there is great potential.”

Lado has been living in Australia for the past 19 year and he thinks he has at least “part-adopted the local way of thinking”.

So he’s perfectly placed to bring the history of Georgian winemaking into the modern Australian methods.

“Winemakers are doing all sorts of experiments with skin contact and ferments in clay vessels, but with all respect to them, they are not authentic.

“If you look at winemaking techniques today, about 80 per cent of all of these can be observed in Georgian traditions.

"Sure, they are modernised versions of the ancient techniques, but I don’t think this makes us any more clever today than our ancestors were in some ways they were doing a better job of looking after their production and their environments in the past. Genius is often in the simplest version and when that is achieved there isn’t any marketing that needs to be created – you have the facts and the history and the process to talk about.”

He said just a bit of understanding of Georgian winemaking, where these techniques have been perfected and are still in use, will make the world of difference.

“Unless we know where we come from we don’t know where we stand. I’m absolutely confident with the proper information, properly set up winemakers will be able to draw on all the history that is not exclusively Georgian, but belongs to all winemakers.”

However, Lado believes the range of Australian varieties that can be successfully made on skins in Qvevri could be quite limited.

“Dry-grown Grenache would be the first I would look at, some Shiraz as well. But I would not even look at Cabernet for long maceration.

“White varieties will be more difficult but I would look at the Georgian variety Chinuri as well as Sylvaner, maybe, and Verdelho given its background with fortified wine. But the experimenting won’t take long because we already know so much about the biomechanical make-up of the varieties.”

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Post Harvest Vineyard Care

Measuring nutrients in grapevines

RESEARCH undertaken by the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Wagga Wagga has paved the way for a quick and low-cost method of measuring the concentration of nutrients in grapevines.

The research, by Dr Jason Smith, Dr Leigh Schmidtke, and PhD student Mr Markus Muller from CSU’s School of Agricultural and Wine Sciences and Dr Bruno Holzapfel from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, has also been recognised with an award highlighting its potential impact on the Australian viticulture industry.

The team investigated a new method of plant tissue analysis, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR), which is rapid and requires little sample preparation making it ideal for use in viticulture.

Dr Smith said it brings a new application for an instrument already used across a wide range of industries.

“We’ve developed calibrations that will allow this instrument to be used in viticulture so growers can measure macronutrients in their grapevines,” said Smith.

“This information can act as a guide for seasonal fertiliser requirements or managing longer-term issues with mineral nutrient deficiency or excess.”

Dr Holzapfel said a more accurate fertiliser program can save money and also influence the quality of the grapes and wine produced.

“Aside from maintaining productive vines, from a winemaking perspective the nutrients in the vines affect the composition of the fruit and the finished wine,” said Holzapfel. “It’s also important that nutrient levels of grapevines are managed after harvest to ensure appropriate production of fruit in the following season.”

Traditionally grape growers take plant

The TuckawayTM Staple May 2015 – Issue 616

NUTRIENT CHECK: (from left) Dr Bruno Holzapfel, Dr Leigh Schmidtke and Dr Jason Smith.

tissue samples at flowering time and these are sent to a commercial laboratory for testing, a process which can take weeks.

Dr Schmidtke said the new method will be quicker and more accessible for growers, providing better decision making tools for vineyard management.

“The next phase is to develop guidelines that allow growers to be able to interpret the results,” said Schmidtke.

The research paper, Measurement of the concentration of nutrients in grapevine petioles by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics, was named the Australian Society for Viticulture and Oenology’s Viticulture Research Paper for 2014.

The award is presented to the authors of the paper published in the Australian Journal of Grape and Wine Research

It’s also important that nutrient levels of grapevines are managed after harvest to ensure appropriate production of fruit in the following season. that’s considered to have the greatest potential impact upon the Australian viticulture industry.

The research has been carried out through the National Wine and Grape Industry Centre (NWGIC) in Wagga Wagga, building on a series of earlier projects funded through the Australian Grape and Wine Authority.

1300 558 361 www.tuckaway.com.au www.winebiz.com.au

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grapegrowing

When little things make a big difference WHEN you have 1,500km of trellising to look after, even the smallest of improvements in the safety, efficiency and effectiveness of installation and repairs can make a big difference.

Viticulturist Colin Hinze, who heads up production at Taylors Wines in South Australia’s Clare Valley, says the penny dropped when he went to a local fencing exhibition day.

“I realised the way our guys had been installing and repairing trellis was not necessarily the most efficient or even the correct way to do it. Through the years, methods had been passed down, and they were just doing what someone told them was the way it was done,” said Hinze.

“We’re in the process of re-planting substantial areas of our vineyards, and if we can do it better we will avoid a lot of re-work down the track. That will free up labour, which is one of our biggest overall costs, for other work.”

Mr Hinze partnered with Landmark Clare and Waratah’s fencing guru Neville Prince to run a workshop for staff.

“I wanted to re-set the methods being used, particularly for tying knots, and I’m really pleased with the impact of the training,” said Hinze.

“We use high tensile wire strained to maximum specifications, so it has to be tied right or it may loosen or break. Safety’s also important, so sharp edges where wire’s been cut need to be avoided.”

The majority of Taylors’ newer developments use Waratah’s Gripfast Trellis posts at about 600 per hectare, and high tensile Growire.

“Like many vineyards, the move to steel is being driven partly by environmental concerns on how to dispose of broken copper-chrome-arsenate (CCA) treated timber posts,” he said.

“However, we have fairly soft rock

Waratah’s fencing guru Neville Prince giving a demonstration to staff at Taylors Wines in South Australia’s Clare Valley.

under the soil, so there’s also a time and cost benefit because a pneumatic or electric driver will let you install steel posts very quickly, compared to the need to drill pilot holes for timber intermediate posts.”

Research has identified CCA posts as a huge contributor to the industry’s carbon footprint, on top of long-held concerns in some quarters about the toxicity of the chemicals used to stop termites and prevent fungal problems.

In addition, pine posts break at an industry-accepted average of between five and 15 per cent every year during harvest, and there are very strict controls about the disposal of CCA posts, in

recognition of the risk of fire, leaching and heavy metal contamination.

“Some of the earlier steel posts had corrosion issues and a large amount of breakages, but quality products these days should easily last 30-odd years in the vineyard,” said Hinze.

“All in all, the strength and durability of steel coupled with more efficient and effective installations is letting us focus on our main game – making excellent wines.”

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52 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Irrigation automation experts WiSA has been a leader in irrigation control and automation technology for more than 15 years. WiSA solutions integrate with existing irrigation infrastructure, removing the need to change your existing equipment.

Their systems are modular by design, allowing customers to add to the system over time. WiSA technology is equally applicable to all farm types and irrigation methods, and is currently being used successfully across the world.

The irrigation technology experts work with their customers to deliver sustainable irrigation practices and financial benefits.

Louise and Stuart Murray from Ballendella, Victoria, said they began installing a WiSA Irrigation Automation system in 2013 as part of their ongoing property development. They were so impressed, they have provided this testimonial: “The reasons we decided upon the WiSA system were primarily cost, usability, and the ability of the system to grow as we are able to develop areas of our farm and can afford additional infrastructure.

The staff at WiSA were very helpful from the beginning and were able to explain the way both their software and their hardware work, how to design a system specific to our needs, how they are able to support us through installation and commissioning of the system and the training that they provided us to be able to program and run the system.

It did take a little bit of training with the software in the beginning, and we have had some ongoing questions but the technical support staff have always been able to talk us through the programming.

Once our system was up and running we have had excellent back up and attention to detail from WiSA. They are not happy unless everything is running 100 percent and have always responded very quickly to any requests we may have had for maintenance.

One of the most appealing aspects of the WiSA system is the way we have been able to grow it, and WiSA have been completely helpful with us adding components, or shifting actuators to different fields, and have even added May 2015 – Issue 616

Once our system was up and running we have had excellent back up and attention to detail from WiSA. They are not happy unless everything is running 100 percent and have always responded very quickly to any requests we may have had for maintenance. relay stations to increase the range of coverage from our home office.

We are currently undertaking significant on-farm modernisation works and are looking forward to the benefits that further automation will entail.

We have found that automating some of our irrigation has provided the obvious benefits of labour savings and unbroken sleep, but also water savings from always making changes at the right time, not half an hour late because you are busy elsewhere, and greater efficiency in other areas of our business because we can put more time and effort into them.

We would strongly encourage anyone considering an irrigation automation system to consider WiSA due to its effectiveness, cost competitiveness, usability and back up service.”

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53

grapegrowing

Pruning

Eutypa breakthrough in time for pruning season

THIS winter winegrape growers can protect vine pruning wounds from Eutypa entry using a standard vineyard sprayer and Crop Care’s Emblem fungicide.

After a three-year research project conducted by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), the University of Adelaide and the Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA), registration of the vineyard fungicide Emblem was extended late last year to cover Eutypa dieback in Australian grapevines.

Mark Sosnowski, South Australian Research & Development Institute (SARDI) senior research scientist, said having a registered Eutypa fungicide that can be applied with a sprayer was an important development for the Australian wine industry.

“The prevalence of Eutypa dieback continues to increase in Australia and other wine-producing countries, predominantly in cool-climate winegrowing regions,” said Sosnowski.

“This was highlighted at the International Workshop on Grapevine Trunk Disease in Adelaide last November which focused on how to reduce the incidence and spread of the significant grapevine trunk diseases Eutypa and Botryosphaeria.

“These diseases can eventually infect the whole vineyard and are the most serious emerging viticulture problem around the world. Yield losses from Eutypa of up to 1500kg per hectare have been reported in severely infected Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz vines.

“Vines become infected with Eutypa through fresh wounds, usually from pruning and reworking. Disease progress is slow but insidious – with symptoms appearing five to 10 years after infection, and dieback slowly progressing to eventual death of the vine.”

Sosnowski said there were limited ways to control the disease – only by protecting wounds to prevent entry and infection by

54 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Eutypa spores; and by physically removing infected wood and retraining shoots from below the infection.

“There is no treatment for Eutypa once it is in the vine and making its way through the cordon and trunk. However you can prevent its entry, and gain a good level of control if it is detected and dealt with early. We are encouraging early action, from the first year of planting.”

Sosnowski said pruning wounds were most susceptible immediately after cuts were made and remained susceptible for up to four weeks, with susceptibility highest in early to mid-winter when vine growth and healing were slow. Moist conditions promote infection, and the larger the wound surface area, the more vulnerable it is to infection.

“Eutypa dieback is mostly transmitted by airborne fungal

Eutypa - Grapevine with Eutypa dieback symptoms. Photo supplied by SARDI.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

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Eutypa - spraying grapevine pruning wounds with a recycle sprayer. Photo supplied by SARDI.

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spores. The disease has many hosts including a wide variety of fruits, nuts and ornamental trees, shrubs, roses and hedging plants which can be the source of Eutypa spores. So there is no shortage of infectious material in most vineyard environments, with spores able to travel 50km to infect open wounds. We have made grapevines susceptible to the Eutypa in their environment by our pruning and training practices.”

He said Emblem was one of the most effective fungicides trialled in their three years’ research, and is currently the only fungicide registered for Eutypa dieback that can be efficiently applied to wounds with a sprayer.

Victorian-based Crop Care researcher David Hughes said the deadly trunk disease Eutypa acted slowly, gradually reducing yield and killing off the vine.

“It’s becoming a big issue especially for southern Australian growers. The cost of ripping out and replanting vines is very high, so a protective spray of Emblem against Eutypa every year after pruning is a sound investment,” said Hughes.

“Since Crop Care’s successful submission to add Eutypa to Emblem’s registration – backed by the industry’s research – there has been strong interest from corporate vineyards in using Emblem to spray pruning wounds this year, to replace labourintensive hand application of wound treatments.”

Being able to spray Emblem for Eutypa management means significant application savings for growers over the usual method of hand painting to protect wounds.

“A number of vineyards have estimated they will save more than half their application and chemical costs by using Emblem to control this disease, including a reduction of up to 80 per cent in labour cost.

“Growers’ understanding of the impact of Eutypa and their management choices has also been the focus of a number of field days in cool-climate regions including the Yarra Valley and Tasmania.

“This is a breakthrough. Until now growers had no registered

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May 2015 – Issue 616

grapegrowing

Pruning expo

Eutypa – wedge-shaped staining of dead trunk wood. Photo supplied by SARDI.

Eutypa fungicide for efficient application to pruning wounds with commercial vineyard spray machines.”

Crop Care advises growers to apply Emblem as a dilute application of 100mL/100L as a dormant treatment to grapevines within 24 hours of pruning. Application should be made with nozzles directed to target pruning wounds, and in sufficient water volume for thorough coverage of the cuts.

Emblem is also registered at the same rate for pre-budburst suppression of phomopsis cane and leaf blight in grapevines.

For more information, contact: Dr Mark Sosnowski P: (08) 8303 9489 E: mark.sosnowski@sa.gov.au David Hughes P: (03) 9282 1250 E: david.hughes@au.nufarm.com

MORE than 120 grapegrowers and viticulture trade and industry representatives attended the inaugural Barossa Pruning Expo held at the Nuriootpa Research Centre on 11 June 2014. And the organisers are hoping to attract an even bigger crowd to this year’s workshop.

To be held on Wednesday 3 June, the aim of the expo is to provide a forum to present and discuss ‘remedial’ pruning practices to address cordon decline as a result of Eutypa which, anecdotally, is currently responsible for 20-30% yield loss in Barossa vineyards.

The key speaker is SARDI’s Dr Mark Sosnowski, who will present his latest research findings on prevention and management of Eutypa. This presentation will be followed by two ‘grower case studies’ focussing on different methods employed to remedy Eutypa-affected vines.

The demonstrations will include the Klima Gen 2 cane pruning machine in action, to showcase the efficiencies of this new technology in the vineyard. It is also hoped that Brett McClen, the Brown Brothers chief viticulturist, will present the latest research into imminent pruning and other vineyard management tools, including the pruning robot and nanotechnology, set to reduce vineyard labour costs in the future.

Activities will include a pruning competition to engage growers from across South Australian regions, as well as a trade show that showcases pruning equipment and new technologies to the viticulture industry.

“The Barossa Pruning Expo is an example of the BGWA’s strong focus on helping growers optimise financial returns,” said Nicki Robins, BGWA viticulture development officer. “We are dedicated to ensuring the Barossa is producing the highest quality fruit from vineyards that are financially and environmentally sustainable long into the future.”

Darren Cribbes 0400 600 556 – Owen McCarron 0419 006 100 58 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Heavy-weight vineyard champion THE LEDGARD cutter bar is known as a product that won’t let growers down.

But did you know the legendary piece of pruning equipment can be refurbished at a fraction of the cost of a replacement?

“You don’t have to buy a new one,” said John Harnett, Ledgard Pruning Systems owner. “We can rebuild them.”

That’s a pretty good indication of the strength and reliability of the Ledgard Pruning Bar. “For a grower who has one of our bars that is getting to the end of its working life, or for people who pick them up second-hand from Gum Tree, they should know that we can service the bar,” Harnett said.

“A cutter bar about $6000 brand new and 90% of the build is done in our McLaren Vale workshop. But to rebuild one, even in the worst case, is only going to be about half the cost of buying a new one. And if it doesn’t need new blades, the rebuild can be done for around $1000.

“It makes the choice of a Ledgard bar a really economical solution.

“For bigger growers who might have been looking at their options and weren’t sure they could afford to go to a new bard – it becomes a really easy commercial decision.”

Ledgard Pruning Services has been working with grapegrowers for 25 years, since Trevor Ledgard combined his engineering skills and his grapegrowing knowledge to develop a local mechanical pruning option.

“My brother James actually helped

BUILT TOUGH: The Ledgard cutter bar in action.

Trevor develop the cutter bar and bought the first two machines,” John said.

The McLaren Vale company has now supplied more than 3000 machines to Australian grapegrowers. Export markets have also grown and the equipment has proved to be easily adapted to other fruit crops.

“There wouldn’t be a grapegrowing region in Australia where you wouldn’t find a Ledgard cutter bar in action and we have a growing market with tropical fruit growers in northern Queensland and once we get that established we think there will be extra export opportunities.”

While John Harnett knows the Ledgard cutter bar is the most-expensive on the market, he’s proud of its proven long life – at least 10 years. And he said option to rebuild the bar should be factored in to the price.

“Once a bar is returned to us to be rebuilt we completely strip it. We take everything off the bar and get

it back to bare metal. Every nut, bolt and grease nipple – every mechanical part is replaced. The blades are either re-sharpened or replaced, depending on their condition. And four or five days later it comes out of the paint shop looking brand new.”

The main reason these machines can be rebuilt is because they were designed and built to be tough.

“They are certainly known as products that won’t let you down,” Harnett said.

“Part of the reason is because Trevor, who designed them, is renowned as being thrifty and innovative. His attitude is that if you need a one-inch bolt you use a one-and-a-half to give you extra strength and endurance. The competition might be half the weight and cheaper, but they don’t last like a Ledgard because they are built lighter.”

The heavy-duty Ledgard Pruning system is made in a range of sizes from 0.8m to 2.4m with pivot types to suit all vineyard and orchard requirements.

And there are no limitations in mounting to the frames and tractors of your choice.

The cutter bar pruning system is designed for both winter pruning and summer trimming. It’s the best dual system available.

For more information, contact Ledgard Pruning Services.

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Return of the SA Wine Grape Growers’ Summit THE REAL impact of fluctuating currencies on South Australia’s winegrape growers will be presented at the second annual SA Winegrape Growers Summit, to be held in July.

The summit is set to become an annual event after last year’s inaugural event was such a success, with more than 200 people attending. It will again be held at the Adelaide Oval. The summit seeks to assist winegrape growers plan for the coming vintage, with information like which varieties are increasing in demand and which may be declining.

The summit, to be held on July 17 at the Adelaide Oval, will bring experts and grape growers together to analyse the outlook for winegrapes leading into 2016 and beyond. It will take an in-depth look at the state of the winegrape growing industry in SA, the factors that affect it, national and international wine markets, trends in wine varieties, consumer tastes and marketing directions, as well as ‘big picture’ issues such as the weak AUD and free trade agreements.

The Wine Grape Council of South Australia (WGCSA) said while the falling dollar is a positive factor for the wine industry the level of benefit is still to be determined.

Peter Hackworth, WGCSA executive officer, said new free trade agreements with China and South Korea were good signs for Australia’s wine industry, but competitors from other exporting countries – including Chile and South

60 Grapegrower & Winemaker

Africa – also benefit from similar rates of depreciation. Australia exports at a higher rate than any other country and therefore exchange rates are critical for the economic health of the wine industry.

One of the keynote speakers on July 17 will be Professor Kym Anderson, executive director of the Wine Economics Research Centre, who will examine the situation in depth.

Professor Anderson undertook a comprehensive study looking at the impact of exchange rates in the global marketplace from 2007-2012 and WGCSA has asked him to present an update of this information at the summit.

“We are really pleased to have someone of Professor Anderson’s stature to give us a much more complete picture of how winegrape growers and our wine industry will be placed as we move further into 2015 and beyond,” said Hackworth.

“Big picture issues in our global and national marketplaces will be covered, but importantly growers will benefit directly from speakers focussing in on improving vineyard management, productivity and new technology,” said Mr Hackworth.

This year’s SA Winegrape Growers Summit will not only discuss the outlook for the industry but also celebrate innovation by SA’s winegrape growers with a new award.

The inaugural ‘vinnovation award’ will be presented for a change in practice

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or a technical breakthrough that creates positive change for grape growers. The award includes a trophy, a Pellenc Lixion battery powered pruner and $2000 cash.

The aim of the award is to acknowledge and share innovations so that all grape growers may benefit.

“To enter growers or their employees simply need to outline the innovation, the benefit or benefits it has produced and the impact or expected impact it will have on their bottom line. Colleagues in a region may also nominate someone they know who is achieving results through innovation,” Hackworth said.

“There are no limits to what is an innovation: it could be a machinery modification, change in viticultural practice, or a new way of doing business.”

“Entries are invited from people willing to share their innovation for the benefit of the industry. We will be promoting the finalists’ innovations across all of our eight regions in South Australia.”

Registration is now open with early bird prices of $110 for members and $165 for non-members for bookings received before June 18.

Double passes for the Adelaide Crows/Port Power Showdown on 19 July following the summit will go to two early bird bookings.

For the full program and to register for the event go to the WGCSA’s website, www.wgcsa.com.au or call (08) 8351 4378.

May 2015 – Issue 616

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The progress of the robotic pruner Field tests continue and the software improves, but more investment from the industry is needed before the US prototype robotic pruner becomes more broadly available. Michael S. Lasky reported on the latest for Wine Business Monthly.

BACK IN November 2012, there was a lot of coverage of the initial field trials of Vision Robotics’ prototype robotic pruner in Creston, California. It was clear at this early stage that more work needed to be done to have sales-worthy units available within 18 to 24 months.

Because of the ambitious mission of the robotic vine pruner, with its complex amalgam of hardware and software, incremental system improvements have been inevitable. Nevertheless, Vision Robotics’ aim of pruning by machine with the same quality as hand pruning, and at half the cost, remains on target, if not as timely as originally predicted.

Vision Robotics has been developing its robotic pruner since 2006. Field tests have continued in the years since its development, and a critically decisive field test in March 2014 at Vino Farms’ vineyard demonstrated to 50 grape growers and agricultural engineers both the vast improvements made since the prior prototypes and the tweaks still required before a sellable model would be available. At that time, both the growers and Vision Robotics were optimistic that commercialgrade units would be available for the pruning season in early 2015, but it turned out that more improvements needed to be made before that could happen.

“The plan now is to have two advanced prototypes in the Lodi area for the upcoming pruning season to gather more refining info and have units available for purchase for the 2016 pruning season,” said Vision Robotics partner and COO Tony Koselka.

“One of the issues that became apparent in the field tests was that the software modelling needs to be more exact – which is dependent on getting better visibility of the vines,” Koselka said.

Hardware issues are more demanding, according to Koselka.

“The clippers and the robotic arms to which they are

62 Grapegrower & Winemaker

attached need significant tweaking. In addition, the frame needs improvements as well, and we are still working on improving the speed of the cuts. We have reduced the speed of cuts from five seconds to four. We aim to make the pruner economically viable, so we need to get down to that one- to-two second sweet spot.”

Another reason for delays has been a lack of industry backing, which is needed to actually manufacture the units.

Craig Ledbetter, the partner and vice president at Vino Farms, shared Vision Robotics’ frustration over the lack of industry support for a project he sees as beneficial to wineries and grape growers.

“Getting final units all revolves around money. Unfortunately, we have not gotten some of the bigger players on the winery side to step up to the plate and make an investment in the future of the wine industry,” he said. “We know they will be interested in purchasing the robotic pruning equipment once it becomes available, but they are not working with us to get it to that point.”

Ledbetter added, “What I like about having a robotic pruner is that I will have a fixed cost paid over time and my pruning will get done a lot cheaper. There is more to this machine than just its pruning capabilities. It holds other possible functions, such as crop estimation and shoot-thinning.

“We are just at the tip of what this machine will be able to do in the future, that is, once we get this pruning portion of the system down.”

The next field tests are being conducted just outside Vision Robotics’ San Diego office. “We have vines that growers have pulled out and sent to us. They are not live vines but are great for the purposes of our tests and keep our testing going until the actual pruning season. So the 2016 pruning season is looking better and better for final production equipment,” confirmed Koselka.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Frost Management

Frequently asked frost questions What is better - wind volume or wind speed?

Neither - the most important aerodynamic property of a frost fan is the momentum of the wind stream it generates. This ‘wind momentum’ is the product of the wind flow rate, the wind speed and the air density. The more momentum the wind stream has, the further it penetrates into the orchard or vineyard.

Does this also apply to helicopters when they are used for frost protection?

Yes it does. The more thrust the helicopter can produce, the more wind momentum it will generate, and so the greater the amount of warmer inversion air it can blow down into the orchard.

With a helicopter, the thrust developed by the rotor equals the weight of the helicopter, so the heavier the helicopter can be made, the more effective it will be at frost fighting. Thus any helicopter used for frost fighting, should be operating at its maximum safe operating weight, by carrying additional dead weight, in order to maximize the amount of wind momentum it can produce.

What are the pros and cons of two and four-blade fans?

The main source of noise from a frost fan comes from the high tip speed of the fan, so the longer the blades are and the higher the fan speed, the more noise it makes.

May 2015 – Issue 616

NZ Frost Fans designed the fourblade fan to be quieter without losing performance. The blades were designed and pitched, to match the maximum torque of the engine. Because of this, the engine and fan can operate at a lower speed (1700-1900rpm) and achieve better coverage and fuel economy with less noise.

NZ Frost Fans also manufacture a conventional two-blade fan for use where noise is not a major issue. The FrostBoss A24 fan achieves its maximum output at a relatively low speed (2100rpm) compared to other 2 blade fans due to the design and pitch of its blades.

Are C49 fans really that much quieter?

Yes they are. Not only is the fan running much slower, but the engine is running slower as well, so both the aerodynamic and the mechanical noise is reduced.

Further, the low frequency chopping sound is not present with a C49 fan. It is this sound that is most annoying on still nights, because it is low frequency sound, and carries much farther than high frequency sounds. This is like your neighbour playing music really loud, and all you can hear is the bass beating and no music to go with it.

For more information contact NZ Frost Fans P: +64 6 879 8312 E: info@nzfrostfans.com www.winebiz.com.au

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winemaking

60 years at the AWRI – a brief look back THE AUSTRALIAN Wine Research Institute (AWRI) celebrated its 60th birthday in late April. Such a milestone provides an opportunity to look back at the organisation’s history and its development to the present day.

“Looking back at the AWRI’s establishment, the first thing to note is that it almost didn’t happen,” said Dan Johnson, AWRI managing director.

A trust of £500,000 was set aside for industry in 1947, but it took some time before there was agreement on how to use the funds. An application was made in 1949 for more than half of the trust monies to be used for generic

marketing, but this was refused. In 1951 the industry successfully applied to apply the funds to the establishment of a new research institute, which was eventually incorporated 60 years ago on 27 April 1955 and commenced under the direction of John Fornachon.

“Reading the early annual reports of the newly-established AWRI, the practical focus of the research program is immediately obvious,” said Johnson.

“Early projects looked at the sources of lead in wines and concentrated heavily on factors influencing the success of malolactic fermentation.”

Collaborations were also in progress

Lawrie Stanford Wine Grape Growers Australia (WGGA) executive director: “It is pleasing to see AWRI reach the ripe old age of 60 and WGGA hopes that retirement is not imminent. The institution has proved its worth as an industry-owned body that is fully immersed in industry providing the benefits of accessibility and a depth of understanding of industry issues and priorities.

While constitutionally AWRI is a wine company research organisation, the AWRI management fully understands the integrated nature of growing and wine processing.

In a practical sense, AWRI’s flexibility and willingness to respond rapidly to emerging events like disease outbreaks or smoke taint is of immense value. AWRI is also a preeminent agent for extension of viticultural research. Finally, the assistance of AWRI’s dedicated viticultural staff is vital to WGGA’s attempts to serve grower interests.”

64 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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from the very early years, with a joint project commencing in 1957 with the SA Department of Agriculture and the Soils Division of CSIRO looking at the relationships between grape variety, the growing environment and eventual wine quality. The new institute’s first publication concerned the influence of fermentations conditions on the yield of ethanol – reflecting concerns held even then that ethanol levels in wines were too high. Climatic factors influencing grapegrowing were also an area of interest. There are many links between those early research projects and the research under way at the AWRI today – even if the technology being employed has changed enormously,” said Johnson.

“While lead levels are now much less of a concern, the effects of metals in wine are still very important.”

One current research project is finding that metals have a significant impact on the formation of sulfur offflavours during winemaking and storage.

Manganese levels in wine have also been a recent regulatory focus after new limits were established for exports to China.

“Today’s deeper understanding of MLF, including flavour impacts and factors influencing efficiency, builds on the early work that established May 2015 – Issue 616

Leuconostoc oenos (now Oenococcus oeni) as a species of bacterium that could successfully perform MLF at low pH,” said Johnson. “New genetic techniques are opening up further doors in understanding this essential winemaking step and importantly in developing strains tailored to Australian winemaking conditions.”

Full flavour, lower alcohol in wine continue to be a priority, with exciting research in progress on yeasts that may be able to produce such wine styles. The early work on climate links with the work currently being done in the area of climate change adaptation.

Services to industry were also a key part of the AWRI from the very beginning. Problem-solving assistance for industry took up a high proportion of the AWRI’s early activities and led to the establishment of extension activities, to communicate the outcomes of problemsolving investigations for the wider benefit of industry.

“Yeast cultures were provided to industry from the very early years – a service that has now morphed into the extensive and well-used Australian Wine Microorganism Culture Collection” The close ties between AWRI staff and wine industry practitioners continue today as one of the AWRI’s key strengths.

Significant achievements across the 60-year history include: • Understanding of the essential role of pH in wine production; • Knowledge on phenolics and colour; • Developments in sensory evaluation of wine and its application across a wide range of research projects; • Understanding of the mechanism of formation of protein hazes; • Research on wine bottle closures

Terry Lee Former AWRI chairman: Industry leaders made an extraordinarily ‘brave’ decision 60 years ago to locate their planned research organisation on an academic campus. This was an industry that was much smaller than the current Australian wine industry but the decision has paid off handsomely with the access to the staff, equipment and graduate students of the Waite Campus. The AWRI has been able to attract many capable staff who have never lost sight of their main role which was to assist the technical development of the Australian wine industry through long-term research, problem solving and dissemination of technical information from round the world.

Philip Laffer AWRI chairman 1983-1991: AWRI is a world class institute with world class researchers. The Australian wine industry is extremely fortunate to have an organisation that responds to the community rather than dictate. No other organisation in the world has an institute that links so closely to the industry. There are many significant positive changes AWRI has had on the wine industry. AWRI research lead to the understanding of cork taint, causing many Australian winemakers to introduce screw caps in broad use. Also furthering the industries understanding of pesticide residue and metal contamination helped produce much better wine. Working at the AWRI was a fantastic experience.

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that led to the rapid and widespread adoption of screwcaps; Identification of rotundone as the compound responsible for black pepper aroma in Shiraz wines; The combination of research and extension efforts directed towards control of the spoilage yeast Brettanomyces and the subsequent sequencing of the Brettanomyces genome; Development of extensive collection grape and wine information resources in the John Fornachon Memorial Library and online; and Growth of the AWRI’s extension

programs to the level where in 201314 an event was delivered on average every week.

What ties all of these highlights together, along with many other activities not listed, is the fact they are industrydriven and have practical outcomes that are underpinned by world-class research.

“The AWRI’s model as an industryowned and directed research organisation holds a unique position amongst the global R&D landscape – one it is hoped can be maintained for the next 60 years, while continuing to adapt to our industry’s changing needs and priorities,” said Johnson.

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The AWRI at 60 – looking to the future SOME of the newest technologies AWRI scientists are starting to work with have the potential for game-changing outcomes for the Australian grape and wine industry across the next 5-10 years and beyond.

“The AWRI’s 60th birthday also presents an opportunity to look forward and think about the next big breakthroughs in grape and wine science that are likely to be on the horizon,” said Dan Johnson, AWRI managing director.

“Other exciting areas involve the application of technologies or techniques from other disciplines in grape and wine science for the first time.”

GENOME SEQUENCING Perhaps the most obvious area likely to have significant future impact fairly quickly is genome sequencing. The development of next-generation genome sequencing techniques and the associated dramatic cuts in sequencing costs have wide-ranging potential applications across grape and wine science that are just starting to be realised. These include: • Understanding the genetic basis for

grapevine clonal differences; • Genome-assisted breeding of new nonGM grape varieties; • Developing new understanding of agrochemical resistance and techniques for avoiding or overcoming it; • Cha racterising all of t he microorganisms within a system (e.g. a wild ferment or vineyard soil) and their contribution to wine terroir; • Developing tailored strains of wine yeast and bacteria; and • Understanding the genetic factors behind human flavour preferences.

The AWRI’s existing expertise in yeast, bacteria and grapevine genetics means it is well-placed to harness these types of breakthroughs for the benefit of the Australian wine industry.

SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY In a related area, the Yeast 2.0 project that aims to build the world’s first ever synthetic yeast might sound like science fiction to some, but is an incredible opportunity to work with the best scientists in the world on a cutting edge

area of biology. The AWRI has recently joined with Macquarie University to take part in the global Yeast 2.0 collaboration, which is sure to bring new knowledge and scientific networks to the AWRI’s biological scientists.

The creation of a synthetic yeast will significantly improve scientific understanding in the laboratory of how yeasts work and what compounds they can produce, with applications for a range of industries including wine.

Results could eventually allow better control of fermentation and potentially the development and application of novel non-GM yeast strains with desirable characteristics.

METABOLOMICS In the field of chemical analysis, an approach that allows all of the constituents of a biological system to be analysed at once (known as metabolomics) also has huge potential that is just beginning to be unlocked.

The AWRI hosts the SA facility of Metabolomics Australia which applies a range of analytical instruments and

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The next 60 years, and indeed the next six, should bring many opportunities for scientific and technological advances techniques to analyse a diverse array of different molecules. Metabolomics gives scientists the ability to look at systems from a ‘global’ perspective; to see the bigger picture of what happens in a process such as alcoholic fermentation.

Its availability within grape and wine science is likely to greatly improve the information able to be gained from future research projects, for example when comparing the performance of different yeast or bacterial strains or the outcomes of different fermentation condition.

WINE COLLOID CHEMISTRY In a less well-known area of chemistry, new instruments recently purchased by the AWRI for analysing the size and distribution of particles are likely to bring some of the more exciting and unpredictable future developments.

These instruments have the potential to completely change the current understanding of the behaviour of large molecules and colloids in wines and their impact on wine colour, mouth-feel and stability. This work involves the adoption of technology more commonly used in industries such as mining, petrochemicals or pharmaceuticals in wine science and should bring new perspectives that were not previously attainable.

AUTHENTICITY Protecting Australian wine from counterfeiting or substitution is likely to become an increasing area of focus, as Australian wine moves into new markets. Robust analytical methods will need to be developed and validated that can establish the authenticity and provenance of products in the marketplace. Techniques that are likely to be important include trace metal and metal isotope analysis, spectral analysis and DNA testing. The AWRI’s existing analytical capabilities and experience in method development should place it well to help industry find a solution for what appears to be a continuing issue.

AUTOMATION In both the vineyard and the winery, automation has huge potential to change grape and wine industry practices in the near future. This covers everything from the use of drones in vineyard monitoring, extensions of precision viticulture applications and use of GPS-guided May 2015 – Issue 616

self-driving tractors and harvesters, to automated fermentation monitoring, new winery sensors, objective grape quality grading and more. The sky is really the limit in this area, with new technology being developed very quickly and coming down in price just as fast.

It’s hard to predict the specifics of which automated solutions will take off first, but there’s little doubt that this is an area where significant change is likely to happen over fairly short timeframes. The AWRI will maintain a close watching brief on emerging technologies and assist industry to assess and adopt the most promising of them.

A U S T R A L I A

A U S T R A L I A

CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR Understanding why consumers choose to buy certain products is an area of increasing interest across a range of industries including wine. Investigations into consumer behaviour can involve the application of techniques from fields such as psychology, cognitive neuroscience and genomics. Areas where breakthroughs are likely to be made include new understanding of the impact of cues such as packaging, signage or environment on purchasing behaviour; exploring genetic influences on sensory abilities and preferences; multi-sensory approaches to marketing; and consumer-led approaches to the development of more appealing products.

This area ties in with existing work at the AWRI examining influences of both sensory and non-sensory cues on wine purchase behaviour and the VALO collaboration that stemmed from applying the concepts of ‘Design Thinking’ to develop new wine-related products and services.

Predicting the future is always a risky business, and there may be a whole suite of other scientific breakthroughs just about to happen that will allow new directions to be pursued in grape and wine science. Nevertheless the potential across areas where the AWRI is currently involved is already incredibly exciting.

“The next 60 years, and indeed the next six, should bring many opportunities for scientific and technological advances that will add value to our industry both by reducing production costs and in creating high quality products for which buyers are willing to pay a premium,” said Johnson. www.winebiz.com.au

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roundtable

State of the industry Q: Can you sum up the mood of the industry at the moment?

Lawrie Stanford: The mood can be best summed up as hopeful, but subdued. The quality of 2015 is good – a dry spring leading into harvest has meant the crop is relatively disease free and the vines have experienced that bit of stress I like to think of as the ‘creative tension’ they respond so well to in terms of flavour development. The economic environment influence however, means attitudes are very subdued. The enduring downturn and hanging-on despite the lack of profitability is taking its toll on more and more growers. There are the indicators of economic recovery (exchange rates and key markets with improving economies) but the benefits have not flowed through to growers yet. I take as an indicator of grower mood, the interest that growers have in receiving in-season forecasts for the crop. This of course is a statement of the degree to which they are engaged with in the market. Usually there is a clamber for this kind of intelligence. For the last two seasons I haven’t had any pressure to collect it.

Paul Evans: Our members around the country are definitely more positive than they were last year. The decline in the Australian dollar, the signing of key Free Trade Agreements in Asia, the recent success of the Vancouver Wine Show and some strengthening signs in the US economy are all welcomed.

However industry is also all too aware these factors are seasonal and broader structural change is the only way we can become profitable and sustainable in the long term.

Matthew Moate: I’m seeing a continuing positivity from suppliers in the industry. There appears to be general optimism from the producers and this is definitely flowing down to suppliers across the value chain. While we recognise the industry continues to operate in a highly-competitive environment, key growth in WISA membership numbers, attendance to our ‘supplier of the year’ event and the interest from suppliers to participate in the WineTech Exhibition in July are all positive examples of an industry that is on the up.

Sid Patel: I think there is a lot of positive attitude towards the international market right now. People have finally begun to shrug off the shadow of the 2008 global meltdown and the strength of the Aussie dollar is finally falling against some of the major currencies.

Q: What are the reasons for positivity?

LS: A weakening Australian dollar, the recovering economies in North America and Europe, the continuing promise of China, the downward adjustment in Australian supply, Australia’s continued shining light of quality and value (evidence: international wine competition successes).

PE: The main driver for growing positivity is much more awareness of what needs not be done to promote uplift in profitability – primarily by increasing demand for our wines and getting the support from government we need to make that happen. These actions have been identified by the WFA and are critical components of the industry’s recovery plan. Importantly and significantly, we are making progress. Ultimately industry itself will lead the recovery – our current challenge is getting government onside to play their important supporting role in making the right reforms and removing imposts like the separate New Zealand producer WET rebate scheme.

MM: From an association perspective we are feeling positive given the re-organisation of WISA brought about by our decision

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Lawrie Stanford: The Wine Grape Growers Australia (WGGA) executive director, since July 2010. Lawrie’s association with the Australian wine industry spans 17 years commencing in 1994 as the Horticulture Analyst at the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE now called ABARES). He moved to the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation (now Wine Australia Corporation) in 1997, where he was the Manager of Information and Analysis for more than 12 years.

to return the WineTech Exhibition to Adelaide with a far greater commercial focus to benefit the industry. This decision led to a model that allowed us to maintain a full-time executive officer, providing better value for members as it allows for more time for the organisation to engage with its members and the wider industry. Our recent forums on the ‘role of the supplier in the future’ of the wine industry has provided some excellent feedback and direction for WISA to target key hot topics and to work with the other industry associations and groups to ensure we can provide more inclusive services and collaboration across industry.

SP: 2015 looks like it is shaping up to be a great year for Aussie exports. Some people have been deterred by the export numbers of the past, but I think everyone is getting over it.

Over in the US, we’ve really seen a boost in numbers for the boutique and premium categories from importers. With the extra incentive provided by the US dollar’s recent rise, I think we will see this trend expand to a wider spectrum.

The UK has always been a big buyer and the pound has also really bounced back in the last couple of years, so we should continue to see more on the UK exports side. There has been a lot published lately in the UK about Aussie wines and it’s all been positive, so the market is there. It’s just about getting the right partners in play. Bulk has always been the UK’s play on the Aussie market, so let’s hope we can encourage those numbers while also increasing exports of our home branded labels.

As for the Asia Pacific region, I don’t think that’s going

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anywhere bad anytime soon. The majority of our exports head to Asia and we’ve really developed some solid markets in the bigger countries. The new agreement with Japan last year was definitely a step forward towards building healthy partnerships there and China numbers are still improving, even with their austerity measures.

Q: What are the reasons for negativity?

LS: Less-than-cost-of-production returns although for many growers it goes beyond this – the inability to even find the buyers.

Many growers feel discouraged about their role in the industry.

So much is said in the industry about the importance of quality to the competitiveness of Australian wine, premiumisation/ premiums, innovation and the importance of the vineyard to the creation of these things. Yet in an industry that sees itself as anything but a commodity, growers themselves are frequently treated as just that. When the positivism of success and relatively easy growth was stripped away, our industry has shown itself to be not very adaptable. Something fundamental is not working.

PE: The main reason for negativity is the structural imbalance that persists between supply and demand for our grapes and our wines. This puts incredible downward pressure on margins, both in the highly-competitive global wine market and our highly-consolidated domestic retail market. The explosion of retailer home brands is a particular point of dismay for many in the industry.

MM: We think the industry recognises there’s a need for continual development and improvement. The WFA and AGWA largely lead this as the key bodies with consultation with industry on their future directions. It’s important for our industry bodies and where applicable for the individual

businesses to take the broadest possible industry perspective.

Some great examples are out there on how collaboration can achieve positive results for industry. It was almost a five-year process to achieve the WFA/WISA Supplier Raw Material Quality Minimum Standard Product Information Declaration form. This document provides a harmonised approach for suppliers to declare and summarise across the industry the information of raw materials, additive and processing aids.

This is an example at industry level of the positive outcomes for the whole of industry. At a business level our ‘supplier of the year’, industry collaboration award winners Winegrapes Australia and Seppeltsfield Wines with their Evererst grape improvement program demonstrates what can be achieved and be implemented across the industry. WISA likes the change in language from industry over the past year. There was a sense of the industry having a negative outlook. We’re no longer talking about over supply we’re talking sustainability, marketing and competitiveness. This is a critical point we believe we need to keep focusing on. Suppliers are across the whole value chain from the vineyard to the marketer. Therefore, WISA and its members can continue to play an active role in assisting industry to achieve these goals.

SP: However strong external markets might be now, I think there is a lack of confidence understanding how to approach them. With the recent strength of our currency convincing a lot of producers that it might not be worth looking out into the world, we need to help small and medium producers target achievable export goals that they can sustain throughout market volatility (whether it’s national or international). It’s a perfect time now, because we have favourable conditions, so hopefully Aussie producers will realise some of this potential and find solid international partners to work with.

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roundtable

Q: Can you tell us more about membership numbers?

LS: From an organisational point-of-view, WGGA’s engagement with growers is improving year-by-year, both in terms of the number of businesses and contributions to its finances (albeit that in overall terms, these are constrained by also reflect the poor state of the industry’s finances).

This is despite the declining number of growers across the nation. The latter story is one of attrition, particularly for independent growers.

The current story is not available because of the demise of the Vineyard Survey since 2012 but there are figures that track this between 2010 and 2012.

PE: Membership numbers remain stable, both in our short and longer-term history. What we are also seeing is increasing awareness of the work being undertaken by the WFA on the industry’s behalf and that means we are building support in different ways on top of membership. Having the industry unite like this means we have greater capacity to put the shoulder to the wheel, if and when it’s needed.

MM: It is pleasing, due to a number of reasons, we have experienced an approximate 300% increase in membership numbers since 2010/11 and with WineTech approaching it’s increasing every month. The GFC hit everyone hard and it was the discretionary spending of memberships and subscriptions that often suffered. While as an association we feel that it is during downturns businesses should increase their engagement with their supporting bodies rather than ceasing, this is often not the reality. WISA continues to be a relevant avenue for suppliers to be heard and this is one of our key benefits members can achieve by engaging with the association. Suppliers have also recognised that the redevelopment of WineTech will provide

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Paul Evans: Was appointed to the role of chief executive of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) in April 2012.

He previously worked as director of government, regulation & community affairs for Lion Nathan National Foods and also across senior roles with the Federal Government, including as principal adviser to the Minister for Defence. greater commercial outcomes which will benefit the whole-ofindustry. WineTech now holds a place that is very distinctive compared to any other event that is offered to our industry.

SP: (Responding in terms of the response to the Australia Trade Tasting Business Conference)

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roundtable

Matthew Moate: The executive officer at Wine Industry Suppliers Australia Inc. since January 2014, Moate previously spent more than nine years as a sales manager with JMP Holdings and before that worked for JF Hillebrand. He is passionate about the role of suppliers in the wine industry.

We are seeing registration levels increasing steadily. We just began rolling out our speaker line up in the media and we see volume bumps every time we announce someone. I think beverage professionals look at the full line-up every time a new speaker is announced and realise how important these people have been in shaping the international beverage industry. It’s tough not to get too excited about the business conference when you realize how many influential market makers are going to be in one room talking about how we can all work together and make a better industry.

Q: Has the relationship with other industry bodies changed in the past 12 months?

LS: The major innovation last year was the creation of the Australian Grape and Wine Authority which has refreshed the enthusiasm and passion for the industry and is showing positive returns. Now that the industry has a statutory services body that includes R&D through to Brand Australia marketing, the privileged opportunity AGWA has to forge a whole-ofvalue-chain culture in the industry is keenly anticipated.

Nevertheless, a culture change like this will no doubt take time as most cultural changes do.

While conversations with our sister organisation, the WFA, do not always result in whole-hearted agreement on all issues – it is positive to report that the conversations occur, they have a foundation of mutual respect and there is agreement on most issues.

WGGA is enthusiastic about its interaction with the AWRI which is, by constitution, a wine company research organisation, but the AWRI management fully understands the integrated nature role of growing and wine processing. The assistance of AWRI’s dedicated viticultural staff is vital to WGGA in its attempts to serve the interests of growers.

PE: We recognise relationships are important in developing policy platforms and realising solutions and we value our stakeholders and what they bring to the relationship very highly. For example, we have a very close working relationship with the WGGA and we are in close consultation with our statutory marketing authority, AGWA, especially on developing their strategic plans for the future.

We are additionally working closely with the South Australian Wine industry Association on issues such as the future of the nation’s industrial relations policy. I believe 2016 will be a watershed year in planting the seeds for organisational reform over the next 5-10 years and relationships across the sector will be critical foundations for that work going forward.

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MM: With the changes and resources now available to WISA by bringing WineTech back in-house we have certainly seen a significant improvement to our ability to ‘practice what we preach’; engagement with industry. For quite some time we have held positions on the WFA Packaging and Wine Industry Technical Advisory Committee. In the past 12-24 months we have also made active efforts to engage with other key bodies such as WGGA, AGWA, Wine Communicators of Australia and where possible state and even regional bodies. It’s allowed for a far more inclusive approach to representing the interest of suppliers and understanding the broader needs across industry. We’ve recently negotiated agreements with WFA, WGGA, AGWA and WCA to have a key presence at WineTech as part of our Industry Hub to allow them to engage with their stakeholders. This is further accentuated by a number of these organisations actively involved in our content program associated with the exhibition. We are also pleased to have re engaged with other organisations such as Austrade, SA Department of State Development and Business SA. WISA also actively engaged with the WFA industry review and the recent call for submissions to the AGWA strategic plan consultation.

When it comes to relationships and engagement across and for the benefit of our industry there is always room to do more and this is one of our key objectives.

Q: Has the relationship with government (at national and state level) changed across the past 12 months?

LS: As WGGA has developed and consolidated across the past five years it has found the capacity and authority to engage more with the Commonwealth Government. This latter development of this capacity makes comparisons with earlier periods difficult but it can be asserted that the current Commonwealth Government has generally been a willing listener to WGGA’s views and ready to assist in the process of manoeuvring through the political process. The level of awareness of winegrape growing issues, as distinct from those of wine companies, has nevertheless varied from parliamentarian to parliamentarian and it remains a task WGGA strives to address.

PE: We have developed a working relationship with the Federal Government and we are involved in highly-detailed discussions at various levels. For example, we have been talking to the government for well over 18 months now about increasing funding to AGWA to spearhead critical marketing of our wine.

We are also continuing to campaign for retention but reform to WET rebate eligibility, including abolition of the existing separate New Zealand producer rebate scheme. The WFA Action Plan signposts the changes we need to see made and we will continue working with the government to deliver necessary improvements for industry. We are at the business end of our negotiations with the government and we remain confident we will see progress in the near future.

Q: What ‘big issues’ have been address across the past 12 months? And what issue still keeps you up at night?

LS: As the signatory to the Emergency Plant Pest Response Deed on behalf of the wine sector, WGGA’s prime focus is on establishing effective and sustainable industry arrangements for managing biosecurity risk. It is apparent that industry understands the risk in this area and wishes us all speed in our endeavours but ‘support’ awaits the creation of a Strategic Plan and funding model for how this might occur. At the time of writing, WGGA is tendering out a project to have this happen and we look forward to the consultation consulting with industry on this topic that will follow an appointment.

Commercial practices between wine companies and our grower constituents keeps me awake at night. All too many of

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May 2015 – Issue 616

these practices are old, traditional and accepted but not a good fit, and nor do they permit the industry to adapt to, emerging needs and challenges. Not only do they frequently disadvantage the growers we represent but they also stand in the way of a more market-driven industry. Ironically, innovation in this area is probably the last frontier to be capitalised on.

PE: We have seen considerable progress around the WFA Action Plan for the recovery of the sector. The level of understanding across the industry and in Canberra for what must be done has increased exponentially over the past six months and there is enormous goodwill among industry and with our stakeholders to continue working together to get the job done.

What keeps me up at night is that we have a limited window of opportunity to act. That is why we must continue working hard to see the government deliver for the Australian wine industry at the upcoming Federal Budget. If we do not seize the potential created by the Australian dollar and strengthening consumer demand, the opportunity before us will be fleeting and we risk seeing it instead pass to our competitors.

MM: Collaboration and engagement are clearly the direction our members want us to pursue. It’s critical to bring to the forefront of industry the importance of supplier-driven innovation. While we understand and respect this needs to be balanced by an informed risk strategy surrounding uptake of technology and business model innovation, we see it as the future. The re-development of the WineTech Exhibition model also featured heavily as an opportunity to inform the market about products and services that are continually evolving and launching. We are very pleased with the uptake of stands and the continuing development of our commercially focused content program. The re-development of WineTech was absolutely necessary and now has broad grass-roots appeal with its commercial focus providing a marketing platform for supplier relevant knowledge transfer. WineTech is a key industry event and our pre-registrations from the growers and wineries has seen strong interest, including from overseas.

With the event returning to Adelaide for the first time since 2010, coupled with the growing positivity in the industry, it’s a perfect opportunity to get in front of the national audience that will attend the event with a clear focus; to see what’s on offer.

It’s pleasing to see the support from suppliers that have booked in to exhibit and to those who have already pre-registered to attend. It is clear to see that it will be a highly-successful event.

WISA understands its members and our members understand their customers needs, making it a perfect opportunity for the two to gather, exchange ideas, learn and positively engage with each other.

SP: The Aussie industry needs to work together towards creating a market place that is healthy for everyone. From consumer trends to innovative technology to trading partners, we should be giving each other the tools that are necessary for independent bottle shops, producers, suppliers and distributors to really succeed. The more we know about what is happening in the industry, the easier it is for us to address the pressing issues.

Q: Looking into the future... 12 months from now...

Will the industry be more, or less, positive? What key issues will have been addressed? What will the next challenge be?

LS: I believe the industry is getting closer to dealing with the must-do issue of greater integration between the two national advocacy bodies, the WFA and WGGA. The logic for greater integration is compelling, the form it will take is thorny and the stakes are high for growers in particular. Hopefully wise heads and leadership will prevail but the outcome has to be the right May 2015 – Issue 616

Sid Patel: Executive director of Australia Trade Tasting (AuTT) and president of the Beverage Trade Network, a global marketplace connecting suppliers, distributors and importers of wines, beers and spirits. AuTT is an annual adult beverage trade tasting and business conference being launched in order to promote sustainable growth in the independent Australian beverage industry.

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roundtable one. The wrong form of integration for growers will only create a new splinter organisation and a return us to the status quo.

PE: I am very optimistic about the next 12 months and beyond. We are bending the ear of the government and what we are saying is resonating because it makes good policy and sound economic sense. Once the government’s support is secured, the ball will be back in industry’s court to take full advantage of what is a positive confluence of local and international events.

We continue to produce a quality, world-standard product in Australian wine and it seems the stars are finally beginning to align for the industry.

MM: The industry needs to continue to look outwards.

What’s coming, what’s changing, where are the opportunities and what will be our challenges? From an industry perspective WISA and our members are interested in the coming 12 months as AGWA announces directions for the industry as part of their strategic plan. We will also be interested in the WFA agenda on tax reform. WISA isn’t a lobby body, but both of these areas will have impact on the value chain which our members operate across. As mentioned earlier, WISA sees a need for greater support for supplier driven innovation and uptake. The ‘myth and legend’ that surrounds our industry is important but we need to keep evolving. As with many industries we need to be considering that the pace of innovation is ramping up. There will be a need for our industry to adapt to the fast changing discretionary spending habits, as this is the market we operate in. We need to understand better both the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) component of our industry and the low volume premium sector. Both offer opportunities. We need to know and embrace the new innovation trends so we aren’t left behind. We are already seeing growth in our membership with those companies in the digital space and we’ve barely scratched

the surface. The wine industry needs to be considering what the Uber or the AirBnB of our industry will be because it’s coming we just don’t know what it is yet.

SP: Many people are enthusiastic about increased growth in 2015, as compared to 2014. I am too.

I think we’ve done a great job at creating an international market for our renowned grapes, Shiraz and Chardonnay.

With the educational programs we’ve put into place around the world over the past few decades, even casual international wine consumers know we produce some of the best Shiraz and Chardonnay in the world, so I think we’ll see steady growth for those two as importers pick up more Aussie offerings.

I think bulk wine exports to the USA will show a surprising jump due to the continued positive growth of US economy for the past few years as well as their lack lustre volume in 2014. If I was to guess, I think it would be a contender for best chance of overall increased sales.

Bulk to the UK will still dominate UK exports, but we’ll also see encouraging numbers in the premium range. Asia, and China, will continue to grow and if we work hard some of the developing markets there will really show that we know how to build a marketplace for our wines.

All in all, I think we are in a very positive place for both national and international growth. We just need to keep information flowing freely and work hard at creating a healthy market place for our offerings. I truly believe that the more you share and the harder your work at building working relationships between competitors, partners and facilitators, the stronger the industry will get. That’s why we are so excited for this year’s Australia Trade Tasting – it’s is going to be a great forum where everyone can come network, grow and learn from each other.

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Winemaker faces court BAROSSA winemaker Trevor Jones fronted a Magistrates Court in March, on charges of serious criminal trespass and property damage following an incident where he allegedly opened the taps on tanks and destroyed about 25,000 litres of wine.

Four tanks at the Kellermeister winery, near Lyndoch in the Barossa, were emptied in February and police reports suggested more than $230,000 worth of wine had been lost.

The twist in the story is that Jones is the former winemaker at Kellermeister and he was still at the winery when the 2010 and 2011 wines were made. In his time at Kellermeister, Trevor had made plenty of award-winning wines and became well-known for his handle-bar moustache and his gum boots.

Trevor’s winemaking career started in 1977 at the old Bernkastel winery near Tanunda (now Langmeil).

He then worked in the Hunter Valley at Tyrrells and at Angelsey Wines in Angle Vale before he returned to the

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Barossa, with St Hallett in 1991. He joined Kellermeister in 1999.

During his career, Trevor developed a reputation for stretching boundaries and challenging accepted wisdom. He made one of Australia’s first un-oaked Chardonnays as far back as 1985, he swapped to using new French oak for Shiraz and seasoned French oak for Grenache when most of his contemporaries were stuck on American hogsheads. He even launched one of the country’s first Pinot Gris.

It was during mid-2011 Trevor announced he had left the winery his father, Ralph Jones, founded in the 1970s. Trevor then started his own wine business, also based near Lyndoch – just 4km up the road from Kellermeister.

However, it appears Trevor had recently left the industry, he had sold his Barossa property and moved to the Yorke Peninsula.

When Trevor departed Kellermeister in 2011, Mark Pearce was promoted to the senior winemaker’s role. Within two

years the winery had been sold to the Pearce family.

Jones was not required to enter a plea during his brief March court appearance and is due to face the Adelaide Magistrates Court in June.

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young gun

The Portuguese influence:

Simon becomes Simão Simon Killeen claims he’s occasionally mistaken for rugby legend Billy Slater. But with his growing list of accolades, it’s surely only a matter of time before Slater gets mistaken for the wine superstar. The 28-year-old, seventh generation winemaker has created his own wine label, sits as a judge at one of Australia’s most prestigious wine shows and has been recognised nationally for his commitment to the industry.

Emilie Reynolds reports.

BORN into generations of winemakers, Simon Killeen grew up on a farm with a vineyard and a small winery in Rutherglen. For someone who has never known any different, the wine industry seemed like a natural choice and one that Killeen made at a young age.

“Most of my weekends and school holidays were spent on the farm doing sheep work, pruning, helping with vintage or bottling,” Killeen explained.

“I’ve never wanted to do anything else.”

Killeen’s family history of winemaking goes back seven generations. His greatgreat-great-great grandfather Timothy Stanton planted vines at Rutherglen in 1875. That venture is now called Stanton & Killeen Wines, also known as S&K. “Dad was a winemaker and so was Grandpa,” he said.

Growing up on a winery introduced Killeen to the craft, but a passion for winemaking and viticulture pushed him to pursue a career in the industry.

After finishing Year 12 in 2004, Killeen gained some hands-on work experience, completing 15 vintages across Australia and Europe.

He was a cellar hand at Gapsted Wines in the Ovens Valley, Brokenwood Wines in the Hunter Valley, and Voyager Estate in Margaret River.

Working his way up the ranks, Killeen then travelled to Griffith where he was a cellar supervisor at Casella Wines for a year before completing vintages in Alpine Valley and back home in Rutherglen.

“It was an unbelievable experience,” Killeen said.

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My biggest achievement was mustering the courage to leave my family’s heritage and start my own wine business.

Simon Killeen has been described as one of the most passionate winemakers around.

Setting his sights a little further, Killeen travelled across the globe to France where he gained invaluable knowledge working at M. Chapoutier in Tain l’Hermitage for five months.

Two years ago Killeen revisited Europe where he joined Benjamin Leroux in Burgundy before travelling south to take up residence with the world renowned Taylor Flagdgate Yateman port house in Portugal.

But not every part of the journey has been easy. The Rutherglen community was rocked by the tragic passing of Simon’s father and mentor, Chris Killeen in 2007.

“Losing my dad and grandfather within three years of each other when I was at the age of 20 was pretty ordinary,” Killeen said. “I lost two of my greatest influences and mentors at a very early stage of my career.”

In an enormous feat of courage, Killeen walked away from S&K to pursue a dream of running his own wine label, a move which he credits as one of his biggest achievements and challenges to date.

Simão & Co. Wines was created with a dream to inspire a new generation of fortified wine drinkers.

“I really want to try and capture the last two generations of Aussie drinkers who have paid little regard to fortified wine and re-engage them,” Killeen said.

“The Simão brand is about showing what www.winebiz.com.au

north- east Victoria can do well.”

Killeen said the region has a broad array of mesoclimates and soil types which can produce a varied range of wines, perfect for exploring innovative and creative wine styles.

“In one part, you can make brilliant powerful, unctuous Muscats at home in Rutherglen but then drive 45 minutes down the road and get access to some of arguably the best sparkling fruit in Australia,” he said. “I love the diversity in winemaking opportunity you can choose from.”

Opting to shift the focus to his first name, Killeen said Simão, the name given to him when he worked in Portugal, also grew to be symbolic of his winemaking style.

“It ties in with a few winemaking philosophies I learnt while being in Portugal, along with my love for native Portuguese varieties such as Touriga Nacional, Souzão and Tinto Cão.”

Killeen said he wants Simão & Co. Wines to have drinkability, freshness and class but with one exception.

“My vintage port style. I’m aiming for power, depth and longevity that will sit alongside any great Portuguese or Australian port and hold its own,” he said.

Obviously passionate about vintage port, Killeen said he would be lying if he didn’t name the style as his favourite wine.

May 2015 – Issue 616

“Old vintage port is seriously cool,” Killeen said. “However, I do love Shiraz.

Cornas, Saint-Joseph and Hunter and Canberra Shiraz would be the majority of my cellar. Aussie Shiraz is so damn good at the moment.”

Between working a couple of different jobs to get Simåo & Co. off the ground, Killeen still finds time to keep fit by running and cycling, while keeping his brain active too.

“I have a bit of a green thumb so I’m in the garden a bit,” he said. “I’m also a history nerd and love researching the early days of the wine industry, especially Rutherglen, the Victorian industry and the devastation of phylloxera.”

Killeen’s commitment to the wine industry was acknowledged last year when he was nominated for the Wine Society Young Winemaker of the Year award at age 27. His nominator, Sally Pines, summed up Killeen’s attitude towards winemaking in a statement to the society. “He is one of the most passionate and enthusiastic winemakers around,” it read. “His knowledge of wine at his age is amazing and his love for all things wine is infectious.”

Recognised throughout Australia as one of the brightest young winemakers,

Killeen was also given the opportunity to train with the best judges in the industry at the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards last year.

Held over five days, Killeen said the experience helped to broaden his wine knowledge.

“It helps me make better wines. Some winemakers can get what’s called cellar palate – they only drink their own wines, make their own wines, and they get a bit insular,” he said.

For those staring out in the industry, Killeen said it’s important to stay on top of your game and love what you do.

“Be a sponge for knowledge, have patience, be humble and never stop having fun,” he said.

Killeen’s passion for the wine industry is palpable, as is his excitement about the future and the direction in which he’s headed.

“Right now, the north-east is an exciting place to be for wine,” Killeen said. “It’s a hive of activity with a stack or 20 and 30-somethings going out on their own or taking over the reins of their family’s winery and making some seriously smart wines.

“It’s really cool to be a part of it. Watch this space in the coming years!”

Seventh generation winemaker, Simon Killeen.

BUYERS’ GUIDE For experienced wine & grape industry suppliers

For further information, please contact Kauri

www.winebiz.com.au/guide May 2015 – Issue 616

AUS Tel: 1800 127 611 AUS Fax: 1800 127 609 Email: winery@kauri.co.nz

www.winebiz.com.au

NZ Tel: 0800 KAURIWINE NZ Fax: 04 910 7415 Website: www.kauriwine.com

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REGIONAL ROUNDUP Record entries but no records broken at Bago Grape Stomp A RECORD number of attendees flocked to Bago Vineyards in northern New South Wales to get their feet juicy at the annual Grape Stomp event in February.

In its 17th year, the Bago Grape Stomp called for people to “get down and dirty” in a public stomping competition where teams of two jumped in wooden barrels to see how much juice they could stomp out of 10kg of grapes in 60 seconds.

Ian Adams, Grape Stomp organiser, made sure the contestants had a beat to tap their feet to.

“They are accompanied by our jazz band and are given 60 seconds to stomp and stop when the music stops,” Adams said.

A spot on the grape stomp honour board at the Cellar Door, together with obvious life-long bragging rights were motivation enough for more than 80 people to take part in the event.

Melissa and Taylah Debreceny, a mother and daughter team, were named as the 2015 champions, stomping out an impressive 6.4 litres.

“We really didn’t think we had it in us, we’re quite surprised,” Melissa told the ABC. “We were tiring a bit, a minute lasts a while when you’re stomping.”

Adams said in total, 24 lots of 10 kilos of Chambourcin grapes had been stomped.

“It’s one of the juiciest grapes, and it’s a got a lovely colour and it just sticks to people’s legs and clothes,” Adams said.

The record of 7.1 litres set in 2012 remains unchallenged.

Nearly 250 kilograms of Chambourcin grapes picked and ready to be stomped at the 17th Bago Grape Stomp near Wauchope in northern New South Wales.

Topper’s Mountain wins in Berlin After entering five wines in this year’s Berlin Wine Trophy event, Topper’s Mountain Wines from New South Wales, walked away with four gold medals.

Recently held in Germany, the event has been named as the world’s largest wine tasting event where only 30 per cent of the entries receive a medal.

Dagmar Roesner, Topper’s Mountain marketing executive, said the win came at a vital time for the winery, as it planned to make a move into the international market in coming months.

“Four gold medals is a fantastic achievement for Topper’s Mountain and its endeavour to enter the international market,” Roesner said. “Exactly what we need right now to show that we can compete at an international quality standard and showcase varieties that stand out from the usual Australian offering.”

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Topper’s Mountain Wines have won four awards at the recent Berlin Wine Trophy event.

The 10 hectare vineyard located at 900 metre altitude in Australia’s newest wine region, New England, specialises in alternative variety wines.

The four medals were awarded to Topper’s Mountain’s 2012 Red Earth Child, 2014 Bricolage Blanc, 2014 Wild Ferment Nebbiolo and 2014 Gewurztraminer. www.winebiz.com.au

“The fact that a boutique and niche producer like Topper’s receives four gold medals is showing at a higher level that Australia is serious about competing at world level outside the mainstream varieties,” Roesner said. “We need to draw attention to alternate varieties coming out of Australia and making this our global advantage.”

Mark Kirkby, Topper’s Mountain owner and vigneron, planted the vineyard in 1999 and 2002 and discovered the alternate varieties performed best on this high altitude cool climate site.

Commenting on the importance of the winery’s recent accolades, Kirkby said the result mirrored his wildest dreams.

“This is the type of result I’ve been dreaming about for the last 20 years – let’s hope it is the beginning of recognition for our efforts with alternate varieties in this new region and the place of these varieties in Australia’s wider offering.”

May 2015 – Issue 616

Safe approach for handling oak powder HOW MANY times have we seen winemakers and cellar hands exposed to the hazards of inhaling oak dust or powder during the addition to wine?

Oak & Tanks In the United Kingdom a government department, Health and Safety Executive, which is the equivalent of Workcover in Australia, lists the hazards of handling wood/hardwood dust under ‘The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002’.

These regulations require employers to protect workers from the hazards of wood dust, in particular, hardwood dust that can cause cancer, particularly of the nose.

In the European Union, since July 2009, (L 193/22 EN Official Journal of the European Union 24.7.2009), pieces of oak wood are allowed to be used in winemaking and ageing, including in the fermentation of fresh grapes and grape must, to pass on certain characteristics of oak wood to wine. The pieces of oak wood must come exclusively from the Quercus genus (Oak).

The dimensions of the particles of wood must be such that at least 95 percent in weight are retained by a 2mm mesh filter (9 mesh).

The purpose of this is to reduce the handling of oak dust in the work place exposing employees to the hazards of oak dust.

There are many scientific articles related to the hazards of wood dust and it been recorded as a human carcinogen in Report on Carcinogens, Wood Dust complied for the US Department of Health and Human Services in 2000.

Safe Work Australia lists Wood dust (certain hardwoods such as beech and oak) as a hazardous substance.

With more and more resources in the work place being utilised to minimise the OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) regulations in the work place, oak dust is one more that requires monitoring.

SAFETY IS A PRIORITY With this in mind the research and development team at Seguin Moreau developed a tool for handling smaller oak particles - dust.

Oenofirst® – has been developed as an oenological tool for winemakers that reduces the OHS risks of handling oak dust, through the adaptation of a compacting process for wood-chip heating into a genuine oenological product.

Heat is used during compaction of the oak material and the natural lignins in the wood allow the ‘log’ to retain it shape. The result is a food safety product with oenological potential made to a specific compaction using R&D approved composition.

NOT LIKE THAT: The research and development team at Seguin Moreau developed a tool for better handling of smaller oak particles (dust).

There are three products under the Oenofirst® label: • R00 Oenofirst 100% French Oak – Non Toasted; • R01 Oenofirst 100% French Oak – Toasted and Non-Toasted; and • Oenofirst® ‘Finisher’ French Oak, American Oak Blend 100% toasted.

Oenofirst® R00 and R01 have been developed for use in Fermentation.

Oenofirst® Finisher can be used during fermentation or as a finishing product for use prior to bottling, requiring a short maturation period of two-to-three weeks.

The two toast components in the products each give a unique winemaking outcome: • Untoasted oak will give volume, aromatic lift and sharpness, enabling a better expression of varietal characters, improving colour stability and structure; and • To a s te d oak will help br o aden the palate, covering up leaner vegetative aromas, increasing aromatic characters, building sweetness and volume.

APPLICATION Oenofirst® requires 5-10 minutes in contact with a liquid to disperse into its original state. Each 2kg log of Oenofirst increase five times its volume once contact with a liquid has occurred.

A NEW GENERATION OF OAK FOR OENEOLOGY Since your wines require the greatest attention right up to their final production stages, SEGUIN MOREAU has developed OENOFIRST Finisher, an oak chip formulation for treating wines in the finishing stage.

OENOFIRST Finisher gives wines intended for quick consumption (one year in the bottle) a very stable sensory profile.

SEGUIN MOREAU May 2015 – Issue 616

Po Box 177, Kilkenny SA 5009 • P: 08 8406 2000 • F: 08 8406 2001 admin@seguinmoreau.com.au • www.seguin-moreau.com www.winebiz.com.au

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winemaking

For fermentations in liquid phases (whites, rosés, thermovinification) or maturation using Finisher, mesh bags are used to contain the products.

Oenofirst® is a breakthrough product, the application of the product has many benefits, including: • Reduced hazards associated with handling oak dust; • Decreased transport and storage costs (four times less storage space is needed for the same weight); and • Easy handling, simple and precise dosage.

Trials during the 2015 vintage in Australia and New Zealand have been positive, reducing OHS risks, enabling precise dosage, and meeting budgetary requirements of the winemaker.

Oenofirst® can be added: • Directly to the picking bin prior to crushing; • Re-constituted in water and added in a method similar to yeast and other additives; and • Direct to the tank during fermentation or maturation.

For more information contact Seguin Moreau Australasia P: +61 8 8406 2000 E: admin@seguinmoreau.com.au

Roxset floor coatings were chosen to complete the cellar door and barrel room fit out at Oakvale in the Hunter.

Quality finish, from the floor up WHEN the Oakvale winery and cellar door underwent a significant upgrade everything was carefully considered, right down to the floor finishes.

Established in 1893, this is one of the oldest working wineries in the Hunter Valley in one of Australia’s oldest and most well-known wine regions.

Family owned and operated by the Becker Family, Oakvale are passionate about all facets of winemaking. Under the guidance of James Becker, the winemaker, the winery consistently strives to produce unique and distinctive premium handcrafted wines which is

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a true reflection of both the region and an uncompromising approach to wine making.

Richard Becker, who is a very wellregarded Australian Film Distributor, has recently upgraded his 120 year old historic winery.

As part of the $1 million refurbishment, Roxset were chosen to complete the installation of specialised coatings for the cellar door, barrel rooms and external veranda.

To complement the state of the art décor with huge plate-glass picture windows and gleaming surgical and stainless steel www.winebiz.com.au

intense white palate, Roxset tailor made a striking white finish epoxy coating for the final floor finish. Called Roxset SE2 Surf Mist, the area covered 500 square metres in the bar/service area and Roxset SE2 6mm Mang Black Stone Carpet for veranda and cellar door over 300 square metres.

The Roxset coating solution will ensure the surface will not be compromised by contamination; chemical degradation or cracking which may in any way cause spoilage due to dirty floors and it is also slip resistant and easy to clean.

May 2015 – Issue 616

Oak addition trials Boosting the oak impact of neutral barrels was on the agenda at a recent Oak Conference in the US. Paul Franson reports from Napa, California, for Wine Business Monthly.

WINEMAKERS know there are many alternatives to oak barrels for ageing and flavouring wine, but few are fully aware of the results of using different options.

Those who attended the Wines & Vines Oak Conference, held in February in Napa, were given the opportunity to taste wine made with a range of oak alternatives at the Technical Tasting: Oak Add-in Trials, a session was moderated by Jim Gordon, Wines & Vines editor, and featured oak expert and winemaker Eglantine Chauffour of Enartis Vinquiry, with assistant winemaker Victoria Wilson of Wilson Winery, who conducted trials with her wines.

To set the stage, Chauffour provided some important, but little-known, oak properties. She noted wine aged in oak barrels has modified aromas, polyphenols and polysaccharides that increase structure and complexity. At the same time, barrels introduce minute quantities of oxygen that develop aromas, soften structure and tannins, and increase complexity.

Many alternatives to oak barrels exist, including large staves in tanks, ministaves inserted in barrels, blocks, chips and oak tannins.

THE BENEFITS OF OAK ADD-INS The main reason for using forms of oak other than barrels is obviously cost, but doing so can also speed up aging and ensure consistency. According to Chauffour, barrels can take years to

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OBJECTIVE: Incanto chips were used to enhance the phenolic properties of the wine.

impart the desired effect, while mini-staves take months, and the tannin impact is nearly instant.

In terms of cost, new barrels run US$200-$400 per 100L; neutral barrels cost $40 to $100; and alternatives can cost $0.30 to $12 per 100L. These alternatives can be used to boost the oak properties of neutral barrels or as an alternative way to provide oak aromas in stainless steel tanks; though you would need to use microoxygenation to better replicate the effect of barrels.

Chauffour pointed out that the extractable component of oak consists of only five to 10 percent of its composition.

Other inert components are lignin (25-30%), cellulose (40-45%) and hemicellulose (20-25%). The extractable portion contains aromatic compounds, ellagitannins, other polyphenols, such as lyoniresinol, that contribute bitterness and quercotriterpenosides that add sweetness.

However, the impact of the oak on wine depends on many characteristics, including the origin, forest and species of oak,

the age of the wood and how it’s processed (such as whether it’s sawn or split), how long the pieces are aged and how, and the type and degree of toasting.

As an example, French and American oak species differ significantly in extractable compounds, notably the so-called Whiskey lactones that give American oak (and Bourbon) its characteristic flavour.

Different components in wood also deteriorate at different rates. Ellagitannins, for example, drop linearly from 55 μg/g in 30-year-old wood to about 3 in 180-year-old wood. However, b-methyl-g octactone actually rises from 30 to 45 years then deteriorates by half at 120 years (Moutonnet, 2012).

DIFFERENT COMPOUNDS DELIVER FLAVOUR AND AROMA One of the most interesting aspects of using oak alternatives instead of traditional new oak barrels is that the winemaker can choose different flavour additions, the same way a chef can add spices. These flavours are determined by the drying time and length and temperature of toasting the oak chips or staves.

Enartis Vinquiry, for example, selects its oak alternative range by aromatic profile to offer a range of consistent flavours.

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The speakers discussed trials with the objective of boosting the oak impact of neutral barrels. One trial was at Wilson Winery in Dry Creek Valley where the wine was in contact with either mini-staves (Barrel Boost) or chips (Incanto). The contact time, at tasting time, was a relatively short four to six weeks; a longer infusion would have had more of an effect. In each case, the trials were on the same wine, same barrel vintage and same cooper. They also included barrels with no inserts as a control.

The 2013 Zinfandel, from the southeastern section of Dry Creek Valley, had a pH of 3.72, TA of 0.60 percent and 14.8 percent alcohol. It was fermented in a 12-ton stainless steel tank with a closed top and received two pumpovers per day.

Chauffour described it as a complex, nice wine to start with, having consistent fruit quality from the vineyard.

For the trials, mini-staves in four flavours (vanilla, toffee, special fruit and dark chocolate) were inserted into four neutral oak 2005 and 2008 Seguin Moreau barrels. The wine was racked off lees before the inserts were added, and it had six weeks of contact time by the time of the tasting.

The objective was to enhance the phenolic properties of the wine using Barrel Boost mini-staves and Incanto chips. Wilson noted that effects were noticeable after two weeks of contact time and said that the combined effects of the four staves are representative of aging in a new, French oak barrel.

Chauffour added that the wine had a pretty full extraction of flavours by six months and tannins were softer. After that, there’s not much extraction from the oak, but the wine continues to age naturally.

www.winebiz.com.au

May 2015 – Issue 616

sales & marketing

High prices at Barossa wine auction A BAROSSA Vintage Festival auction which offered some of Australia’s oldest and rarest wine has seen spirits soar and records broken.

Supported by Langton’s, the Barossa Wine Chapters Auction opened online for bidding in early April before wrapping up with a live auction and lunch on Friday 17 April in the Barossa.

More than 410 attendees were given the unique opportunity to buy large formats of wine, rare experiences and exclusive back vintage releases with perfect provenance direct from wineries.

Strong buyer interest and highly competitive bidding lead to high clearance rates of 100 per cent in the room and 80 per cent online with auction prices largely conquering catalogue estimates.

2009 PENFOLDS Bin 95 Grange

May 2015 – Issue 616

Shiraz, South Australia, imperial $53,590 (equates to $6698 per 750mls, average auction price for 750mls - $582) The dogfight of bids and counter-bids saw an imperial bottle of 2009 Penfolds Bin 95 Grange Shiraz sell for $53,590.

The staggering figure equates to $6698 per 750mls, a stretch from the average auction price of the bottle which sits at $582.

Andrew Caillard MW, Veteran auctioneer, said the strength of bidding was directly proportionate to an assertive, well planned and executed auction program.

“Rarely in my career as an auctioneer have I encountered such an incredible volume of support, both in prices and generosity of spirit,” Caillard said.

James March, Barossa Grape and Wine Association (BGWA) chief executive, said

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the results were an encouraging indicator for the Barossa wine community.

“The atmosphere was electric as the spirited bidding received rounds of spontaneous applause as the hammer fell on each lot,” March said. “You couldn’t help but feel there was a real sense of confidence in the pedigree of the lots being presented and this flowed through to the prices achieved, which exceeded everyone’s expectations.”

With a high percentage of proceeds being directed towards nominated charities, March said the event has cemented BGWA’s commitment to the Barossa Vintage Festival.

“The region’s spirit of generosity has left a strong foundation to build on and I felt incredibly proud and privileged to have been a part of another winning chapter in the Barossa story,” he said.

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Wine Australia’s market program guide Wine Australia has launched its updated Market Program Guide outlining upcoming user-pays activities available to wine brands, exporters, importers, regions and states to promote Australian wine both domestically and in key export markets.

The guide currently includes 53 user-pays opportunities in 16 markets ranging from trade-focused events, consumer events, retail promotions, tastings and masterclasses, educational initiatives and advertorial opportunities to sommelier and trade immersion activities, that all aim to promote the diversity, quality and regionality of Australian wine.

This is the first Market Program Guide release since Stuart Barclay took on the marketing leadership role at Wine Australia six months ago, as General Manager – Market Development. For the first time an updated guide with new activities on offer will be released every quarter rather than one release annually. The more regular updates will enable greater agility in capitalising on emerging market opportunities.

“All of the activities we offer are designed to meet the needs of the wine community, complementing their own marketing efforts. By updating the guide every quarter instead of releasing a new guide each year, we’re ensuring that we’ve got the flexibility to create new activities that facilitate a more nimble marketing approach,” Barclay said.

“If we’re going to defend and grow our key export markets,

we need to be able to capitalise on opportunities as they arise and easily adapt our activities based on the needs of our levy payers.

“People will notice a strong emphasis on the key trade shows around the world. We’re seeing a great deal of renewed interest and enthusiasm in Australian wine in some of our most important export markets and we want to keep up that momentum. Shows like ProWein and the Vancouver International Wine Festival were hugely successful activities for us this year and in fact 75 per cent of our exhibitors at ProWein have already signed up for next year.”

The successful Market Access Program, trialled last year in the US, returns in the updated guide in a more structured format and re-named Market Entry Program. Offering three tiers, the program will provide user-pays assistance to Australian wine brands wanting to enter new markets.

Supporting the user-pays activities will be approximately 70 core marketing activities solely funded by levies. These activities are planned for key markets such as the US, Canada, UK, China and Australia.

The Market Program Guide is now available to view and download on the Wine Australia website. Visit www. wineaustralia.com/marketprograms to view available activities by market.

Cowra Wine Show to host national single vineyard competition The Cowra Wine Show Committee has announced the 2015 show will incorporate the inaugural Australian National Single Vineyard Wine Show.

As well as recognising the top wines, the viticulturists or grapegrowers of the best white and the best red single

vineyard table wines will be rewarded with trophies.

Russell Cody, chief judge, supported the initiative and said he was confident producers would see it as an opportunity to showcase their wonderful single vineyard wines.

Schedules inviting entries to the two shows will be emailed to producers on Friday 1 May. The contact email address for both shows is cowrawineshow@bigpond.com.

Hunter Valley Wine and Food Month in June The Hunter Valley Wine and Food Month is a celebration which showcases the best of the region’s gourmet reputation.

Running through June, the festival offers a variety of decadent events such as food and wine tastings, masterclasses and opportunities to dine with esteemed Hunter Valley winemakers.

A stand out event is The Dynamic Duo, a collaboration between chef Troy Rhoades-Brown of the highly acclaimed Muse Restaurant and Gwyn Olsen, Gourmet Traveller young winemaker of the year of Briar Ridge Wines.

The Sunday lunch event features a four course menu created by RhoadesBrown matched with local Hunter Valley wines from Briar Ridge.

Olsen said the Hunter Valley Wine and Food Month serves as an opportunity for the Valley to actively promote wine and food together.

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The Dynamic Duo: Winemaker Gwyn Olsen and chef Troy Rhoades-Brown have teamed up to produce a decadent Sunday lunch.

“Generally speaking – wineries and restaurants are encouraged to come up with events based around enjoying wine and food together and to help draw people into the valley outside of concert season,” she said.

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Olsen said The Dynamic Due event came to fruition last year, when she and Rhoades-Brown both won highly acclaimed awards in their fields.

“Troy won Young Restaurateur of the Year and I won the Young Winemaker of the Year – I was having a chat to a few people and we thought it would be a great event for the month for the two forces to come together and have an event,” Olsen said.

As a way of showcasing the ‘best of the best’ in the Hunter Valley, Olsen said The Dynamic Duo will be a great way to get people talking about the region.

“It also shows that the younger generations of the Hunter are having great successes as well,’ she said.

May 2015 – Issue 616

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Communication and competition on WineTech’s agenda MAINTAINING competitiveness in the retail environment will be on the agenda in Adelaide, at WineTech 2015 in July.

Hosting two seminars on July 14, Wine Communicators of Australia (WCA) plan to focus on some of the options and opportunities available to wine businesses.

As well as looking at what can be learned from the experiences and responses of other sectors of the food, beverage and agriculture industries, WCA will explore the growth of online retail sites and the unrelenting slashed prices that come with it.

Nick Carne, WCA’s executive officer, said the seminars have been designed to stimulate discussion and generate new thinking around some of the wine industry’s crucial issues.

To help with the process, Carne

said an industry panel, including Paul Evans, Winemakers’ Federation of Australia chief executive; Dean Taylor, CrackaWines CEO; and Trish Ba rry, Mastermind Consulting managing director, have been selected to lead the discussion on how winemakers and wine marketers can respond and make the most of the opportunities.

“We’ve put together two very strong panels, but also are hoping for some creative input from the floor,” Carne said. “WineTech brings together a diverse cross section of the industry, so there is no better place to get the conversation started.”

Matthew Moate, Wine Industry Suppliers Australia Inc (WISA) executive officer, said the sessions are intended to promote some robust discussion around the trade show.

“We are pleased to have the support of Wine Communicators of Australia who have a track record in presenting insightful and educational seminars that often challenge the status quo,” Moate said. “These sessions are bound to also provide a high value networking opportunity at WineTech.”

Both seminars will be held in the Adelaide Event & Exhibition Centre’s Goyder Pavilion Full details, including panel members, are at www. winecommunicators.com.au.

Further information on attending or exhibiting at WineTech is available at www.winetechaustralia.com.au.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

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business & technology AGL wine excellence scholarship working with TAFE AGL’S ANNUAL wine excellence scholarship, now in its fourth year, took an exciting turn in 2014 with the entry of a team from Hunter TAFE, Kurri Kurri campus, Education joining forces to make wine from grapes provided by AGL to enter in a number of winemaking competitions.

With Chardonnay, Semillon, Verdelho and Sauvignon Blanc on offer from AGL’s Spring Mountain property in Broke, the Hunter TAFE team, students and staff, had to work to get their offerings in the bottle by May. This task reflected the reality of producing wine in a commercial environment and provided invaluable real-world experience.

Geoff Broadfield, Hunter TAFE teacher in wine and viticulture, said the results were very encouraging.

“The program provided a great opportunity for our students to get real hands-on experience making wine with fruit that was in excellent condition and from one of the driest years on record,” said Broadfield.

The resulting wines were entered under AGL’s Spring Mountain label in a number of competitions, with the earlybottled wines taking two bronze medals, one for a barrelfermented Chardonnay and one for a Semillon. With its legendary aging potential, the wine has become one of the Hunter’s most well-loved and most collected varietals.

“We feel that as they mature, the wines will develop into very good examples of the Hunter style,” said Broadfield.

Students from Hunter TAFE’s Diploma of Viticulture program also used the Spring Mountain vineyard as a case study for a vineyard management program.

“We are grateful to the team at Spring Mountain vineyard for their help and involvement as we teach the next generation of Hunter Valley viticulturists,” said Broadfield.

AGL will provide the winner of the scholarship with a trip to Europe or America to further enrich and strengthen his or her viticultural and oenological knowledge. For more information about the scholarship, including entry details, visit www.agl. com.au/winescholarship.

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HANDS ON: Alison Crocker, AGL Energy’s community relations manager, with Geoff Broadfield, Hunter TAFE wine and viticulture teacher.

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May 2015 – Issue 616

EIT’S class of 2014

GRADUATES: Dani McMillan (left) and Janice Payne.

FLYING START: Hayley Young has already started her own wine brand.

THE EASTERN Institute of Technology (EIT) has produced another fine crop of graduates from the 2014 cohort who gained qualifications by studying through the institute’s School of Wine Science and Viticulture in Hawke’s Bay. Managing Spy Valley’s lab, Janice Payne paced her online studies so she could continue working full-time and raising a family while completing EIT’s Bachelor of Wine Science part-time over six years. Payne enjoyed the learning and got a lot from it.

“It gave me the peripheral vision needed for dealing with problems that are part of working in the wine industry,” Payne said.

Rating EIT’s School of Wine Science and Viticulture as New Zealand’s best, the Award for Academic Excellence winner says the program went into depth. Online students can’t thank EIT lecturers and administrative staff enough, she believes – “the contact has been fantastic”.

Developing a passion for wine during her 10 years in the hospitality industry, Dani McMillan decided to “go back to school” to study EIT’s Bachelor of Viticulture and Bachelor of Wine Science.

“The lifestyle change was a bit of a shock,” McMillan said. “It was back to having no money”.

However, the learning was stimulating “and the study program had a real practical focus which obviously works for my brain”.

Moving to Tauranga, McMillan said one “advantage of studying on campus was the instant access to lecturers, but if you are self-motivated online study is not

much of a stretch”.

Sam Bloxham switched to online study for her Bachelor of Viticulture and Bachelor of Wine Science after being offered a full-time cellarhand position at Wither Hills in mid-2013. Originally from Auckland, Bloxham loved science but didn’t know what field she wanted to go into. Having spent school holidays staying with family friends in Hawke’s Bay, she had always wanted to live in this region. So degree study at EIT was perhaps an obvious choice. Living now in Blenheim and working at the Wairau Valley winery, the 25-year-old is keen to pursue a career in viticulture.

Another EIT graduate making her mark in the wine industry is Hayley Young. Formerly from Invercargill, Hayley studied EIT’s Graduate Diploma in Oenology, leveraging off a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons). While studying, she worked vintage, was employed by a health and safety consultancy with winery clients and developed her own wine brand, Young Estate. Young was also appointed a project manager for an Australian-based engineering company whose services include winery design and building. Young said the part-time and online delivery of the graduate diploma program gave her the flexibility to build these wine-related roles.

EIT’s wine science and viticulture programmes start in February and July, both on campus and online.

For more information about EIT: E: info@eit.ac.nz www.eit.ac.nz

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Study Australian wine on line THE SYDNEY Wine Academy has launched a new Mastering Australian Wine Online course. The course is specifically designed for wine enthusiasts and wine industry professionals that wish to learn more about wine in Australia.

It covers over 40 Australian wine regions as well as discussing history, current trends, key producers and the viticulture and winemaking practices.

Production figures, climate, soil, wine styles, current producers, identities and historical overviews are covered for the majority of regions.

This course is designed for those starting out their career as a sommeliers, or member of the wine trade, or for other professionals involved in the wine and hospitality industry that require Australian wine knowledge.

Clive Hartley, the course director, said the material is selfpaced and flexible so that students can study and access the course material at anytime, anywhere around the globe.

“The Sydney Wine Academy believes there is a great need to give everybody the chance to study Australian wine, and this course will meet this demand,” said Hartley.

“Every student, irrespective of their location, will have access to a Sydney Wine Academy tutor to assist them during the course. In particular the course will benefit regional cellar door staff that cannot physically attend a wine course.

“I believe some people working at cellar doors are sometimes not as familiar with other regions and wine styles as they should be. Employees at cellar door should be able to discuss

Australian wine generally and enhance a customer’s experience in a broad sense and not simply inform people about their own products.

“A detailed study guide, suggested Australian wine tastings and regularly updated short podcasts/videos sessions with winemakers and lecturers, will guide students through the online material,” said Hartley.

This online wine course is designed for people who want to learn about the Australian wine industry. The course covers in depth information of all the major wine growing regions as well as discussing Australian wine history, viticulture, winemaking and future trends.

Students will have access to an online wine tutor and will be expected to taste recommended Australian wines during the course and submit tasting notes for review. There are practice quizzes to undertake in preparation for an on line multiple choice test at the end of the course.

The length of study may vary from student to student, but is estimated at 18 hours. Students will gain access to the material over a nine week period and if they successfully complete the final online quiz and tasting assignment, will receive their Mastering Australian Wine Online certificate.

For more information about the Sydney Wine Academy Visit: www.sydneywineacademy.com.au P: 02 9448 6369

world-class winegrowing graduates EIT has the widest range of tertiary grapegrowing and winemaking programmes in New Zealand.

Talk to us today about studying online, or at our campuses within the premier winegrowing regions of Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne, New Zealand.

Don’t hesitate – enrol now! eit graduates nick Picone (senior winemaker) and ollie Powrie (company Viticulturist) from internationally renowned Villa Maria. №9-5629

+64 6 974 8000 | wine.eit.ac.nz

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Penalty rates, hidden compliance costs come out in survey A RECENT survey of wine industry employers from across Australia has found the current workplace relations system to be complicated and expensive.

Real-life examples from employers were collected earlier in the year by the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia (WFA) and the South Australian Wine Industry Association (SAWIA) in a bid to identify the impact of current workplace relation laws.

The move came ahead of an important submission to a national review by the Productivity Commission into Australia’s workplace relations system.

As well as finding the current process complicated with often delayed decisionmaking, employers noted the main sources of compliance costs related to the award system, leave entitlements and termination of employment.

Industry feedback was gathered using an online survey and individuals share their views and experiences in order

May 2015 – Issue 616

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

to give real examples for the case to simplify the system.

While the contributors will not be identified in the submission, their experiences will support the comprehensive submission being made to the Productivity Commission, and ultimately to the Australian Government later this year.

Aimed at uncovering hidden costs in the wine industry, the survey also found penalty rates for weekend and public holidays were major costs and caused concern for employers, especially during vintage and for cellar door operations.

The issues led to support for

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abolishing the Modern Award system and incorporating some of the core award entitlements into the National Employment Standards (NES).

The results and feedback will be used by SAWIA as recommendations in their submission to the Productivity Commission’s inquiry, according to Brian Smedley, SAWIA chief executive.

“So this is a unique opportunity for wine industry employer’s right across the country to have a say on how workplace laws effect our operations and also to suggest ways flexibility and productivity can be improved,” Smedley said.

“Some areas we know are problematic such as penalty rates and public holidays and we also want to highlight the need to cut red tape and reduce the unnecessary compliance burden on wine businesses.”

More information about the Productivity Commission inquiry can be found at www.pc.gov.au/inquiries.

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Wine Australia audits are on the rise

How compliant are you?

Information Technology

Joshua Abra, VINx2 Winery Software managing director, has 10 years’ experience helping wineries comply with regulations in Australia and overseas. Abra has noticed the target numbers for Australian Grape and Wine Authority compliance orders has increased. He said there’s about a one-in-four chance of getting audited on your Label Integrity compliance. The auditors can cold-call or make an arranged visit, so how confident are you that your record keeping would comply? Here is Abra’s advice.

THE QUICKER you can satisfy an auditor, the quicker you can send them to the cellar door to pick up some purchases for the trip home.

Don’t get us wrong, the Wine Australia people are lovely folks, but I’m sure you’d rather be selling or making more wine rather than pouring over blend history log books and weigh tags.

Are your systems efficient enough to give the auditor what they need when they come knocking?

THE LABEL INTEGRITY PROGRAM (LIP) While you’re not required to make a label claim on your wines, those that do, need to ensure you have the audit trail to back that claim up.

A label claim is a written statement on a wine label, commercial documents, advertisements or records that claim or imply a wine is from a particular vintage, variety and GI. Under the Label Integrity Program (LIP) you need to keep records on all ‘wine goods’ including wine, grapes or grape extracts intended for use in wine production. It’s also mandatory to keep records of who you received these goods from and who they were supplied to under the ‘One step back’ and ‘One step forward’ requirements.

When buying or selling wine goods, you need to make sure you supply or receive a Wine Goods Supply Statement with key information including: date, supplier and customer, quantity as well as vintage, variety and GI composition.

DID YOU KNOW? Wine Australia is considering introducing penalties for minor infringements.

In addition to receipt and supply, wine producers need to record specific details about wine movements and changes in composition that may affect the label claim in any way.

92 Grapegrower & Winemaker

The requirements are precise and all detailed in the Wine Australia Corporation Act, Section 39F. • The identity of the record keeper; • The kind of wine goods to which the record relates; • The date the record keeper receives the wine goods; • The identity of the person from whom the wine goods are received; • The quantity of the wine goods received; • The vintage, variety and geographical indication of the wine goods; • Details of steps taken by the record keeper that changed or affected any of the following: • The vintage, variety or geographical indication of the wine goods; • The tank or other storage unit in which the wine goods were stored; • The volume of the wine goods stored in the tank or storage unit; • The date the record keeper supplies the wine goods; • The identity of the person to whom the wine goods are supplied; • The quantity of the wine goods that are supplied; • The vintage, variety and geographical indication of the wine goods; and • Any other details in relation to the wine goods that are prescribed by the regulations.

DID YOU KNOW? Records must be made within three days and kept up to seven years.

As well as complying with the record keeping requirements you need to adhere to the blending rules which prescribe the thresholds for claiming multiple versus single variety, vintage, GI. Here is a handy explanation of the rules: Each variety named in the description and presentation must be present in greater proportion in the composition of the wine than any variety that is not named. www.winebiz.com.au

And, a maximum of three GI’s can be claimed. (Explanation sourced from the Wine Australia Compliance Guide 2014 and subject to change by Wine Australia.)

AND THEN THERE IS THE FOOD STANDARDS CODE You need to track wine additions and processing aids to comply with the Australia and New Zealand Food Standards Code. The topic of which is outside of the scope of this particular article but it does add another level of record keeping and tracking.

Like being able to identify the presence of allergens over time has been added to a batch of wines through various blends and movements.

PRACTICAL TIPS TO STAY COMPLIANT AND SURVIVE AN AUDIT 1. Nominate a primary record keeper. If you want a more official sounding title call them the “Compliance Officer”.

2. Ensure you plan your working week to allow time for record keeping.

3. Regularly check the last recorded entry to ensure you are recording winery work within the 3 day requirement.

4. If using spreadsheets, remember that you need to keep records for 7 years so make sure you are regularly backing up your files.

5. Consider running a separate log book or file for each vintage year.

6. Use the free Wine Australia LIP templates available for download here, or consider a wine production software system that helps manage this for you.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER WHEN EVALUATING SOFTWARE SYSTEMS • How easy is the software to use? Can you get a free demo to see for yourself?

• Do I need to buy a new computer to run it or is it Cloud based?

May 2015 – Issue 616

• Is your data secure and regularly backed up?

• Can it generate compliance documents such as the Wine Goods Supply Statement?

• Does it work on an iPad, iPhone or other smartphone?

• What value adds does it offer?

(Things like harvest scheduling, lab management, barrel barcoding, Cost of Goods tracking etc.)

• Is it a capital purchase or can you pay by the month?

• What do other customers say about it?

Make sure you get some references.

WHERE CAN YOU FIND MORE INFORMATION? Wine Australia has a terrific compliance guide available on their website as well as details about their compliance activities in the yearly Operational Plan. We’d encourage you to read both and if unsure of anything contact Wine Australia direct for advice.

Disclaimer: This article is intended as general information and should not be taken as legal advice. Information has been sourced from the 2013-2014 Wine Australia Operational Plan and the Wine Australia Compliance Guide 2014.

LABEL INTEGRITY PROGRAM The objective of the Label Integrity Program (LIP) is to help to ensure the truth, and the reputation for truthfulness, of statements made on wine labels, or made for commercial purposes in other ways, about the vintage, variety or the geographical indication of wine manufactured in Australia.

Winemakers are not required to make a label claim about the wine vintage, grape variety or Geographical Indication, but must keep an audit trail if they do. The LIP prescribes what events must be recorded, but not how records must be kept.

As a guide, the Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA) provides LIP statement templates and recordkeeping templates which can be downloaded from the AGWA website.

What must be recorded?

One step back: • The date the wine goods are received; • The type, quantity, vintage, variety and GI of the wine goods received; and • The identity of the supplier.

One step forward: • The date the wine goods are supplied; • The type, quantity, vintage, variety and GI of the wine goods supplied; and • The identity of the customer.

A Wine Goods Supply Statement must accompany the transfer of wine goods between wine grape growers, manufacturers of wine goods and persons who supply or receive wine goods.

The format of this statement is not prescribed. A standard commercial invoice would satisfy the requirements provided it includes; date of supply, identity of supplier and customer, quantity of product and the vintage, variety, and GI.

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Drones are another tool that will find rapid uptake.

New technologies help realise vineyard of the future THE VISION of a ‘vineyard of the future’ is already producing results for the vineyards of today.

You could even get to the point in the future where, as in the mining industry, a lot of stuff would be robotically driven.

University of Adelaide researchers with combined expertise in engineering and plant biology have developed three new techniques for monitoring grape and vine performance, with others in the pipeline.

The first, an iPhone app to measure canopy growth, is being beta tested by a leading wine company prior to being released through iTunes.

The second is a new way of measuring vine water status using near-infrared

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Infrared camera taking a thermal image of grapevines in a glasshouse

spectroscopy (wave lengths above our visual range). The aim is a “point-andclick” measure of how much water stress a vine is under.

“In that range there are strong absorption peaks corresponding to water, so you can look at the absorption of these wavelengths as a measure of how much water is in the leaf,” said Professor Steve Tyerman, who is a chief investigator with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.

The third technique uses impedance spectroscopy to measure grape quality, in much the same way as measuring fat levels in humans. An electrode is attached to a berry, an alternating current passes across it, and from this you can tell how the cells are behaving in the berry.

“Are they leaky or degraded? How much sugar does the berry contain. All this can be worked out from a single measurement,” said Tyerman.

To test these and other techniques, he and his colleagues established what they call their “vineyard of the future” – a one-hectare vineyard on the Waite Campus equipped with sophisticated sensors and image analysis equipment.

May 2015 – Issue 616

An app for that, too. An iPhone app to measure canopy growth is being tested.

“The aim is to monitor the vineyard at different levels to see how efficiently things are working and how well the vines are performing, almost to the point where you could have hardly any visits necessary by people,” he said.

“Ultimately you could have a control system in front of you, with the vineyard wherever it is, and you could see what’s going on, what needs to be done in terms of spray regimes or whatever, from the sensors and the imaging that you’ve got at your fingertips.

“You could even get to the point in the future where, as in the mining industry, a lot of stuff would be robotically driven.”

Tyerman is not alone in thinking this way. He recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with like-minded researchers at the University of Melbourne, the University of Talca in Chile and Spain’s University of La Rioja to share technology and ideas and seek research grants.

Their combined interests range from the use of drones to hyper-spectral imaging that can produce massive amounts of information from what are essentially overhead photographs.

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Sensors and infrared techniques will monitor vineyards and send data to a central computer.

Drones are another tool that will find rapid uptake in the vineyards of the future.

“We invested in expensive cameras that measure the temperature of the canopy – each pixel is a measure,” he said.

“Take a picture of a canopy (or a whole block if on a drone) and you can tell where the hot spots are, and that tells you whether leaves are functioning properly.

We have also used that approach to test the effect of smoke on vines.”

Tyerman’s personal focus remains primarily on the potential of single vine sensors and infrared techniques, which keep an eye on a vineyard 24/7 and send data back to a central computer.

“You don’t often see something out of the ordinary in a vine unless it’s exposed to some sort of stress,” he said. “If we get a heatwave we don’t sent people out to measure, so you are missing what’s happening. But sensors don’t.”

For more information, contact Steve Tyerman P: +61 8 8313 6663 E: steve.tyerman@adelaide.edu.au

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Software solutions

SANDERSON Australia is a member of the Sanderson Group PLC who supply a range of software solutions to multichannel retail and manufacturing sectors. With offices in Sydney and Adelaide, Sanderson Australia supplies and supports their specialised business software solutions for Food and Drink, Wineries and Fresh Produce.

Vintage Advantage has been used for many years by a range of small to large wineries in Australia and the US and includes features such as ‘What-If’ blend proposals, detailed Lab, chemistry and composition analysis, wine allocations, barrel tracking and costing.

Sanderson offer this solution as a standalone module for businesses that are purely looking for vineyard and cellar management but combined with Sanderson’s Unity suite of modules creates a comprehensive business solution with integrated financials to help manage grower payments, scheduling for the bottling line(s) and extended traceability enquiries that cover customer deliveries.

Further efficiency gains can be achieved by eliminating paperwork through the use of Sanderson’s bar code scanning, mobile applications for tablets and website integration for online orders.

Longer term, on-going enhancement

and development becomes of paramount importance. As customer requirements change or new industry legislation is introduced, the ability of the supplier to react to these requirements is very important. Under the Annual Licence Fee, future software releases are made available at no extra charge and Sanderson is totally committed to this process in order to maximise the investment that customers have made in the software.

For more information contact Sanderson Australia P: 1300 736 929 E: info@sanderson.com

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

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May 2015 – Issue 616

calendar Australia & New Zealand

looking back

May 15-17 Clare Valley Gourmet Weekend 2015 Clare Valley, SA. www.clarevalley.com.au 15-24 The High Country Harvest Various locations, VIC. www.highcountryharvest.com.au

21-24 Penola Coonawarra Arts Festival Cellar doors in Coonawarra & Penola, SA. www.artsfestival.com.au 22-23 Mildura Field Days Mildura, VIC. info@mildurafielddays.com.au

16-17 Lovedale Long Lunch Various locations, Lovedale, NSW. www.lovedalelonglunch.com.au

25-26 (JD) International Cool Climate Wine Show 2015. Mornington, VIC. www.coolclimatewineshow.org.au

16 Rutherglen Tweed Ride Rutherglen, VIC. www.rutherglenvic.com

25-29 Irrigation Australia 2015 Regional Conference & Exhibition Penrith, NSW. www.irrigation.org.au

20-21 WTC Irrigation Expo 2015 Shepparton, VIC. www.wtcexpo.com.au

28 Hunter Valley Legends & Wine Awards Dinner. Hunter Valley, NSW. www.winecountry.com.au

June 1-30 Hunter Valley Wine & Food Month Hunter Valley, NSW. www.winecountry.com.au

6-7 The Rutherglen Winery Walkabout Rutherglen, VIC. www.winemakers.com.au

3-5 (JD) Boutique Wine Awards 2015 Concord, NSW. www.boutiquewines.com.au

6-8 12th Shoalhaven Coast Winter Wine Festival. Shoalhaven Coast Wine Region, NSW. www.shoalhavencoastwine.com.au

5-8 The Good Food & Wine Show – Melbourne, VIC. www.goodfoodshow.com.au 5-8 2015 McLaren Vale Sea & Vines Festival.

McLaren Vale, SA. www.mclarenvale.info 6-8 Mornington Peninsula Winter Wine Weekend. Mornington Peninsula, VIC. www.mpva.com.au 6-7 Pizzini Wines Sangiovese è Salsicce King Valley, VIC. www.pizzini.com.au

6-7 Weekend Fit for a King Wine & Food Festival. King Valley, VIC. www.winesofthekingvalley.com.au 10 Hot Red Hawke's Bay 2015 Auckland, NZ. www.winehawkesbay.co.nz 11 Hot Red Hawke's Bay 2015 Wellington, NZ. www.winehawkesbay.co.nz

International

18-19 BARZONE 2015 - Gastro Trend & Trade Show. Cologne, Germany. www.barzone.de 20-22 (JD) Syrah du Monde 2015 France. www.syrah-du-monde.com

20-23 New Orleans Wine & Food Experience. New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. www.nowfe.com 23-25 (JD) The Citadelles du Vin Bordeaux, France. www.citadellesduvin.com

June 1-6 Guangzhou International Wine & Spirits Exhibition. Guangzhou, China. www.chinaexhibition.com

May 1985 A Hunter Valley winery has called on the Federal Government to review its policy of allowing foreign wines to stamp the market at the expense of Australian producers. Brian McGuigan, head of the successful Australian owned company, Wyndham Estate, said the current practice would have a disastrous effect on Australian wines if allowed to continue.

“If this was the case, our industry would rapidly become one of producing low quality raw material type products in order to be able to compete,” he said in a letter to the Federal Minister for Primary Industry, John Kerin.

May 1995 Is Australia’s shortage of wine grapes so great that the nations winemakers have resorted to stealing fruit to meet their needs?! The Grapegrower & Winemaker thinks not, but according to a recent edition of The Barossa and Light Herald, a local grower recently had about three quarters of a tonne of grapes stolen from four rows of his vineyard. The thief evidently had a taste for Riesling grapes, which were valued at around $500.

May 2005

May 17-18 BAR (Beverage Alcohol for Restaurants).

Chicago, USA. iwsb.restaurant.org

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.

4 (JD) Superior Taste Awards 2015 Brussels, Belgium. www.itqi.com

Australian and New Zealand wines have been setting price records across the globe. The Barossa newspaper The Leader reports an imperial bottle of Torbreck Vintners “Les Amis” wine has sold at a charity auction in the US for US$70,000. Meanwhile, a bottle of Goldwater New Dog Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2003 wowed ‘em in Texas at the Houston Rodeo International Wine Competition and Auction. The Goldwater wine sold for US$13,500 claiming the highest price paid for a New Zealand wine.

JD = judging date

3-5 (JD) Shanghai International Wine Challenge (SIWC) 2015 Shanghai, China. www.siwc.org.cn For a comprehensive list of events, visit www.winebiz.com.au/calendar May 2015 – Issue 616

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FIND YOUR SUPPLIER QUICKLY WITH OUR May 2015 Advertiser List Supplier 3M Purification Adama Australia

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Supplier

23 29, 30, 31, 32

Page

MIA Vine Improvement Society

99

National Riesling Challenge

13

Agrimm

58

New Zealand Frost Fans

63

Alternative Engineering

99

Ocvitti

53

AMSL Scientific

69

Omnia Specialities Australia

61

Australian & New Zealand Winemakers

87

Oxbo -Food Machinery Installation & Services

37

Braud Australia

2

Plastic Precise Parts

43

Bruce Gilbert Vine Grafting

99

Portavin Melbourne

86

Cable ties

99

Rapidfil

Case IH Agriculture

27

Rod Ladgrove Musician

99

Cowra Show Society Inc

9

Rola Engineering

56

CropCare

35

Rowe Scientific

25

Croplands

45

Roxset

82

Della Toffola Pacific

100

Ryset (Aust)

60

Deltagen Australia

28

Sanderson Australia

96

Eastern Institute of Tech Hawkes Bay

90

Seguin Moreau

79

Spagnolo Engineering

18

Eclipse Enterprises Aust

54, 62

65, 99

Felco

57

Streamline Cartons

99

Fischer Australis

11

Tafe NSW - Northern Sydney Institute

88

FMR Group

55

Tuckaway Engineering

51

Grapeworks

41

University of Southern Queensland

89

Groguard Australia

39

Vine Industry Nursery Association (VINA)

99

GrowData Developments

93

Viniquip

83

Interpack

85

Wine Barrel Cleaning

22

JMA Engineering

81

WineFile

94

Jx2 Technology (VINx2 Winery Software)

95

WineTech 2015

15

Kauri Australia

Whitlands Engineering

42

Ledgard

75, 77 59

Wine Grape Council of South Australia

17

Mallee Point Nursery

99

Winery Engineering Association

71

MEP Instruments

67

WISA Irrigation Solutions

19

MGA Insurance Brokers

91

Wood-Shield

52

AUSTRALIAN & NEW ZEALAND GRAPEGROWER & WINEMAKER *Australia's largest circulation wine industry trade magazine celebrating more than 50 years of publication. *Now available online to all subscribers. *All Marketplace adverts also appear on Winebiz Classifieds * For advertising enquiries please call Chas Barter on 08 8369 9513, c.barter@winetitles.com.au

Winebiz Calendar

Australia’s most comprehensive wine industry related local and international events and courses – available online FREE! Search for conferences, trade shows, competitions, courses, festivals & Australian & international wine shows.

www.winebiz.com.au/calendar 98 Grapegrower & Winemaker

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May 2015 – Issue 616

Marketplace

All advertisements also appear on www.winebiz.com.au/classifieds/

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WINE PRESS SERVICING • Preventative maintenance & breakdown repairs for all makes and models.

• 24/7 coverage during vintage • Large inventory of spare parts.

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Marketplace

May 2015 – Issue 616

www.winebiz.com.au

Grapegrower & Winemaker

99

The holy grail of winery filtration has arrived!

- Lees, Flotation Solids and Wine Filtration All In One -

The unique design advantage of the Della Toffola OMNIA Series filter is that it can process with good flow rates automatically - juice & wine lees, flotation solids and most importantly, also wine. Thus, when the filter is not recovering high solids & lees, the same wide-bore channel membranes can be used to filter actual wine. Moreover, we can interchange the whole membrane module from a wide channel to a wine specific membrane module. This makes the OMNIA Series a cross-flow filter investment that works for the winery every day of the year.

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